Bufonidae 



Bufo 'cognatus escaped one morning from its moss-garden in a 

 building in Rhode Island. That day repairs had been begun on a 

 cement floor in the basement of the building. In the afternoon of 

 the day, while workmen were continuing to remove the cement 

 floor which had been put down seven years before they 

 came upon a fat toad just fitting a burrow under the floor. Ex- 

 citement followed, with many stories of toads found in similar 

 situations where they had been for more than seven years. If 

 the toad had not turned out to be the lost Bufo cognatus from 

 Colorado, and had been a native of Rhode Island, there would 

 have existed no proof that it had not been there seven years 

 instead of a few hours. 



BUFO COMPACTILIS, WIEGM 



IDENTIFICATION CHARACTERISTICS 



Colour: Greenish-grey or brown, generally light in tone. No 

 vertebral light streak. Spotted irregularly with dark, or without 

 spots. Small warts everywhere may be tipped with red. There 

 may be large dark spots on the lower sides and on the legs and 

 arms. Hands and feet light-coloured. Large tubercles of the foot 

 black. Toes tipped with black. Iris yellowish. Underparts 

 light, unspotted. Throat of male dark. (See Figs. 93 to 95.) 



Measurements: Size medium, i. e. length 2^ to 3^ inches. 

 Head short. Head anterior to eyes rounded and remarkably 

 short. The legs are short, the femur scarcely showing at all out- 

 side of the skin of the body. The length of the leg to the heel is 

 shorter than that of the body forward to the ear. 



Structure: Body unusually fat and squat. Whole surface 

 evenly and closely covered with small rounded warts. These 

 closely placed warts are also on the top of the head and on the 

 eyelids. (Fig. 95.) Crown of head flat, without bony ridges 

 (although there may be slight traces of ridges inside of and behind 

 the eyes). Ear a small vertical oval. (Fig. 93.) Parotoid 

 glands are short ovals, extending obliquely outward and down- 

 ward. (Fig. 95.) Hands and feet small and delicate. One 

 extremely large tubercle with cutting edge on the palm. Two 

 sole tubercles, each unusually large and each with cutting edge. 

 (Fig. 94.) Webs medium in development. 



IO2 



