Some years ago, when I was amusing myself for a little with the study of toads and frogs, checking Dr. J. A. Allen's annotated list of the Massachusetts batrachia, I became very curious about this peculiar and little understood species, known scientifically as Scaphiopus holbrookii, or the solitary spade-foot. It was originally described from South Carolina, I read, and was first found in Massachusetts, near Salem, about 1810. Its cries were said to have been heard at a distance of half a mile, and were mistaken for those of young crows. For more than thirty years afterward the frogs were noticed at this place only three times. They were described as burrowing in the ground, coming forth only to spawn, and that, as far as could be ascertained, at very irregular intervals, sometimes many years in length.
This, as I say, I read in Dr. Allen's catalogue, to the great sharpening of my curiosity. If I ever heard such noises, I should be prepared to guess at the author of them. Well, some years afterward (it was almost exactly eight years ago), fresh from a first visit to Florida, where my ears had grown
