Table of Contents for

Learning SQL, 2nd Edition

Colophon

The animal on the cover of Learning SQL, Second Edition, is an Andean marsupial tree frog (Gastrotheca riobambae). As its name suggests, this crepuscular and nocturnal frog is native to the western slopes of the Andes mountains and is widely distributed from the Riobamba basin to Ibarra in the north.

During courtship, the male calls (“wraaack-ack-ack”) to attract a female. If a gravid female is attracted to him, he climbs onto her back and performs a common frog mating hold called the nuptial amplexus. As the eggs emerge from the female’s cloaca, the male catches the eggs with his feet and fertilizes them while maneuvering them into a pouch on the female’s back. A female may incubate an average of 130 eggs, and development in the pouch lasts between 60 and 120 days. During incubation, swelling becomes visible, and lumps appear beneath the skin on the female’s back. When the tadpoles emerge from the pouch, the female tree frog deposits them into the water. Within two or three months the tadpoles metamorphose into froglets, and at seven months they are ready to mate (“wraaaack-ack-ack”).

Both the male and female tree frog have expanded digital discs on their fingers and toes that help them climb vertical surfaces such as trees. Adult males reach 2 inches in length, while females reach 2.5 inches. Sometimes they are green, sometimes brown, and sometimes a combination of green and brown. The color of the juveniles may change from brown to green as they grow.

The cover image is from the Dover Archive Pictorial. The cover font is Adobe ITC Garamond. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont’s TheSansMonoCondensed.