Windows Vista Annoyances Tips, Secrets, and Hacks for the Cranky Consumer

By David A. Karp
Book Price: $34.99 USD
£21.99 GBP
PDF Price: $27.99

Cover | Table of Contents | Colophon

---

Colophon

The animal on the cover of Windows Vista Annoyances is a horned frog (genus Ceratophrys). Named for the triangular flap of skin at the edge of their upper eyelids, horned frogs can grow to a length of six to eight inches and are generally as wide as they are long. Their rotund build, coupled with the fact that they have extremely large mouths, has earned them the nickname "PacMan frog."



The coloration of the horned frog can be quite varied, and helps to camouflage it against the ground of the South American jungles in which it makes its home. Species include the Ornate (Ceratophrys ornate; specific to eastern Brazil and Argentina), Cranwell's (Ceratophrys cranwelli), and Columbian (Ceratophrys calcarata) horned frogs.



Females are generally larger and not as brightly colored as males. They're also less vocal--unlike the more conventional "ribbit" or "croak," the male's vocalization sounds have been compared to bovine bellowing.



Horned frogs are voracious eaters whose diet consists of insects, lizards, mice, and just about anything they can get their huge mouths around--in fact, frog owners are encouraged to keep their pet horned frogs separated to minimize the risk of cannibalism. This insatiable appetite can have fatal consequences; they have been found dead in the wild with the remains of an impossible-to-digest victim still protruding from their mouths.



A fiercely aggressive creature, the horned frog will attack anything it sees as a threat, even animals many times its own size and bulk. It can inflict painful bites, and a row of sharp teeth in its upper jaw makes it nearly impossible to let go once it has captured its prey. Its vicious reputation has given root to an Argentinean superstition suggesting that if a horned frog bites the lip of a grazing horse, the horse will die (in actuality, horned frog bites are not poisonous). Amazon villagers have been known to wear high leather boots called botas escuerzas to repel attacks by the highly territorial Amazon horned frog.

Return to Windows Vista Annoyances