It is interesting how Bascom Lunsford's lyrics in which the animals are not the primary topic has mutated to an animal song with all verses all animals all the time. I guess it makes a catchy tune more kid friendly. What is equally interesting is the phylogenetic shift that has occurred. And it has moved in a direction that parallels evolution itself. In the older versions the "lizard" is always "in the spring". It is not referring to a lizard at all but an amphibian. The term "spring lizard" is old vernacular for a salamander, i.e. amphibian, and you would find them in a spring, especially in the southern appalachians which are extremely speciose with respect to salmanders. The "lizard in a tree" is clearly out of habitat for an amphibian and must be considered a true lizard which is a reptile. This evolutionary event has been memorialized in song by Tom Paxton in his line "When the first amphibian crawled out of the slime." I suspect that somewhere in its course through the 20th Century (is almost over) the Mole In The Ground song bumped into a singer who didn't know about "spring lizards" and concluded quite correctly that a spring was a very odd place to find a real lizard. So they put the lizard in a habitat that made more sense to them, in the process unwittingly evolving the song. In line with the above verse additions about animals, Doug Elliot (Crawdads, Doodlebugs & Creasy Greens, 1995)has added a few more:

I wish I was a trout in the creek....clear water I would seek.

...hawk in the sky.....I'd never wonder why.

... frog in the pond...I'd sing the whole night long.

Ooo, did you notice the turtle (reptile) in the pond has become a frog (amphibian) in the pond. Could this be retrograde evolution? Will we all become primapes?

rich r