66 NEW- YORK FAUNA. 



GENUS SCAPHIOPUS. Holbrook. 



Body short, thick swollen. Head short. Minute teeth in the upper jav.) and on the palate. 

 A small parotid gland, behind the ear, from which a watery fluid can be pressed. Poste- 

 rior extremities short, stout and muscular. Legs shorter than the thigh. A spade-like 

 horny process occupies the position of a sixth toe, and is used by the animal in excavating. 



HERMIT SPADE-FOOT. 



SCAPHIOPUS SOLITARIUS. 



PLATE XIX. FIG. 47. — (STATE COLLECTION.) 



Scaphiopus solitarius. Holbkook, N. Am. Herpetology, Vol. 1, p. 85, pi. 12. 

 Rana holbrookii. Harlan, Med. and Phys. Researches, p. 105. 



Characteristics. Ash grey, with two yellow curved lines from the eyes, dilated, and subse- 

 quently united at the vent. Length two inches. 



Description. Head short, obtuse. Nostrils subterminal. Eyes very large, and placed in 

 very prominent orbits. Tympanum small, and behind it a small parotid gland, which upon 

 pressure exudes an acrid fluid. Fore feet long, four-toed ; posterior with five toes, and a long 

 black horny process on the metatarsus. 



Color. Back ashen grey, passing into dark brown, with dark brownish and reddish tubercles 

 on the flanks. Irides golden ; and in a modified light, the iris is seen divided into four parts 

 by a vertical and horizontal line, giving a lozenge shape to the black pupil. Tympanum dull 

 yellow. From the eye on each side there runs a yellowish line, punctate with black, 

 approaching each other, then diverging in a curved direction, and finally uniting on the rump ; 

 the position of these two lines resembles the outline of the antique lyre. A bar of a similar 

 color, but interrupted on the flanks. Coccyx with a broad longitudinal yellow stripe. Upper 

 surfaces of the extremities brown, with yellowish blotches. Body beneath greyish white. 



Length, 2-0. Breadth of the head, - 7. 



This singular animal, whose structure is so remarkable as to have required a separate 

 genus, was first detected by our eminent Herpetologist, Dr. Holbrook. With the teeth of a 

 Frog, and parotid glands of a Toad, its natural place is between these two genera. It was 

 first detected in South-Carolina, and subsequently found in Tennessee, and its geographical 

 range was considered to be quite restricted. We have now the pleasure to include it in the 

 Fauna of New- York. Specimens of this animal were found by Mr. Hill, in a garden near 

 Clarkstown, Rockland county. It lives in small holes, in damp earth, a few inches below the 

 surface, which it excavates with great ease by means of its spade-like processes. In these 

 holes it lies in wait for such insects as may approach, and I suspect can spring forth to seize 

 whatever may be passing incautiously near its hiding place. I remarked, at least in those 

 which I had alive, that it leaped with great apparent ease to a considerable distance. To 



