Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/510

* TREE. 442 TREE-KANGAROO. the Haymarket, where among his subsequent pro- ductions were Hamlet (1892), Uypatia (1893), The Tempter (1893), .-l liuneh of Violets (1894), John-a-Dreams {H'J-i), Trilhy (1895). In 1897 he opened the new Her Majesty's Theatre with The Seals of the Mighty. In 1898, after a re- vival of Julius Ccesar, he produced Grundy's The Musketeers, which enjoyed an exceptionally long run. Among liis plays in 1901 was Clyde Fitch's The Last of the Dandies, in 1902 Vlysses. As an actor Mr. Tree is considered remarkable for his versatility, and he is also known as a writer and lecturer. TREE-BOA. Any of various long, slender, active South American snakes of the boa family, which spend their lives in trees and have ac- quired a remarkable power of clinging to the moving branches, even in a high wind, without coiling their bodies about any support. The name is also specifically given to the large ringed boa ( Epicrates cenchria ) . See Boa. TREE-CAT. See Palm Civet. TREE-CREEPERS, or Wood-Hewers. A group of birds, forming the family Dendrocolap- tidip, related to the ant-thrushes (Formieariidae) and true ovcn-binls (Furnariidie). with the tail- feathers stiff and sharp-pointed as in the wood- peckers, and similarly useful in climbing tree- trunks. The bill is usually curved and slender, and often is elongated, enabling them to pull insects out of deep crevices. About 80 species are known, all confined to tropical America ; all have a similar style of coloration, some shade of brown, with white spots beneath and rufous on the wings. TREE-CRICKET. Any one of a group of small, pale-colored crickets which usually in- habit trees and .shrubs. They are nocturnal in their haliits, and lay their eggs in the twigs of various plants, a habit which, when the insects are numerous, results in damage to vineyards and to raspberry and blackberry plantations. The common snowy tree-cricket ((JUeanthus niveus) is a delicate whitish-green insect. The young hatch about the first of May, and feed upon plant-lice and the eggs of other insects. When full-grown they feed upon vegetation. TREE-FISH. One of the Californian rock- fishes {Scbastodes scrriccps), about a foot long. It is dark olive, blackish above and yellowi.sh below, with the front of the head coppery red, two black bands downward and backward from the eye, and several oblique black cross-bands on the sides. Black prominent ridges cross the cranium. See Eockfisii; and Plate of RoCK- FI.SII. ETC. TREE-FROG, or Tkee-Toad. A frog of the family Hylidte, connecting the toads with the typical frogs, and of prevailingly arboreal habits. Tree-frogs have teeth on the upper jaw and vo- mers, and in some genera elsewhere in the mouth. The toes are invariably claw-shaped and swollen at the base; and each carries at the tip a flat- tened, adhesive cushion, whose sticky secretion greatly aids the animal in clinging to smooth sur- faces. Most of them are of small size, more ele- gant in form than the true frogs, of brighter col- ors and more active habits. They feed on insects, which they pvirsuc on the branches and among the leaves of trees or shrubs. All have loud, piping notes, and are remarkable for their power of changing their colors to simulate the tint of the rosting-jilace. (See Metachrosis.) They are also remarkable for tlie great variety in their meth- ods of placing their spawn, and the character of their metamorphoses, which are severally de- scribed under Cricket-Frog, Ferreiro, Mar- srpi.L Frog, etc. The principal genus is Hyla, which contains about 150 species scattered all over the warmer forested parts of the world, but especially numerous in tropical America. The t.vpe is Hyla arborea, common throughout all Central and Southern Europe and Asia. Of the North American species the most familiar is Hyla versicolor, which is a green, gray, or brown warty frog, whose clear, loudly trilled rattle is an almost daily evening sound. One of the first notes heard in the spring in the Eastern United States is the piping of Hyla I'ickeringii, a smaller, more yellowish species, often called 'the peeper.' The cricket-frog (q.v. ) is another nu- merous species. Various others inhabit the South- ern States. Many species of the West Indies and South America carry their eggs about on the back of the females, glued to or sunken into the skin, as is notably the case with Hyla Ooeldii. Notable cases are described in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for 1895. Aus- tralia possesses several species of great interest, especially the familiar Hyla Cwruica, whose cry is a sharp crackling bark. The whole group is one of extraordinary variety and interest. Consult authorities cited under Frog. See Colored Plate accompanying article Toads. TREE-HOPPER. Any insect of the homop- terous family ^Nlcmliracidie, a very strange group comprising a variety of grotesque forms. The antennae are inserted in front of and between the eyes, and the prothorax is so prolonged that it covers the rest of the body, and its curious modifications have been developed in order to bring about a protective resemblance of these in- sects to various plant structures. The tree- hoppers, like other Homoptera, have an incom- plete metamorphosis, and the young are active and suck the juices of plants by means of their beaks. The species are very numerous, and the group is one of wide distribution. The most bizarre forms occur in tropical regions, but many curious species are found in the temperate zone. A common form in the United States is the little humpbacked Tclemona monticola. which some- times swarms on the branches of the Virginia creeper in .June. Another interesting form (EntiUia sinuala) is found upon the leaves of the sunflower and other annual plants. It lays its eggs in the midrib of the upper leaves ; the mother insect broods over her eggs, and the young from the time of hatching until full- grown are constantly attended bj' ants, which are attracted by a sweet secretion. The 'buffalo tree-hopper' (Ceresa biibalus), so called from its horned prothorax, is a species of considerable economic importance, which damages the small twigs of fruit trees in the act of laying its eggs. Large holes are made in the bark, in which the eggs are inserteil in clusters. Consult: Comstock, Manjial for the Study of Insects (Ithaca, 1895) ; Howard, The Insect Book (New York. 1902). TREE-KANGAROO. One of a genus of kangaroos which in the forests of Northern Aus-