110 SCAPHIOPUS SOLITARIUS. 



and yellowish-green; behind the tympanum is a small parotid gland, from which 

 minute jets of watery fluid can be pressed. 



The back is yellowish-green, clouded with dark-brown blotches, and covered 

 with small warts of different sizes; many of these are of a dark-brown colour; 

 others, reddish or orange. Two decurved lines of pale yellow extend from the 

 orbits to the vent; on each flank is another line of the same colour, but less 

 distinct and shorter, reaching only from the shoulder to the thigh. The inferior 

 surface of the throat is yellowish-white; the abdomen dirty-white, and granulated 

 posteriorly. 



The anterior extremities are long, their colour yellowish-green, clouded with 

 a few blotches of brown on the upper surface, — a reddish tinge on the lower, 

 approaching to flesh colour. The fingers are four in number, short and distinct. 

 The male is distinguished by having the two inner ones black above. The poste- 

 rior extremities are short, but very muscular, and have the leg conspicuously 

 shorter than the thigh; they are yellowish-green on the upper surface, marked 

 with a few blotches and transverse bands of dark brown, and sometimes with a 

 few small reddish spots. The lower surface of the thighs is flesh-colour, and 

 granulated. The toes are five in number, and fully palmated. On the internal 

 margin of the metatarsus is a horny spade-like process, containing a bone, which 

 moves by an imperfect joint: the breadth of this process is about a line and a half, 

 its length one line; the cutting edge is jet black. 



The skin is very delicate, and though warty or granulated after exposure, when 

 first taken from its hole the Scaphiopus presents the etiolated appearance of a 

 real subterraneous animal. 



Dimensions. Length of body, 2i inches; of the thigh, rather less than an inch; 

 of the leg, f of an inch; of the tarsus and toes, U inches; of the fore-arm, with 

 carpus and fingers, nearly an inch. 



