422 BATRACHIA. 



BuFO MELANOSTicTUS. The Common Indian Toad. 



Bufo melanostictus, Schneid. Hist. Amph. p. 216. Cantor, Mai. Rept. p. 142. 



scaber, Baud. Rept. \in. p. 194. Schleg. Abbild. p. 64. pi. 20. fig. 2. Dum, ^ Bibr. viii. 



p. 699. 



bengalensis, Baud. I. c. p. 197. 



carinatvis, Gray, Ind. Zool. 



dubia (Shaw), Gray, Ind, Zool. 



Crown of the head deeply concave, the osseous orbital edge being much elevated; it 

 bifurcates in front and behind the orbit, one branch of the anterior fork forming the can thus 

 rostralis, the other descending vertically before the orbit. The upper branch of the hinder 

 fork goes to the parotoid, the lower separates the tympanum from the orbit. Parotoids 

 elongate, kidney-shaped, as long as, or rather longer than, the head. Tympanum very 

 distinct, nearly as large as the eye (except in specimens from the Himalayas, in which it is 

 smaller and generally hidden). Upper parts densely covered with tubercles and warts; 

 generally a double series of larger ones runs downwards along the vertebral line, commencing 

 with a pair of osseous tubercles in the nape of the neck. The tubercles, the parotoids, the 

 ridges on the head, the maxillary edge, and the tips of the toes are very frequently covered 

 with a brown horny substance. Legs short, the length of the hind limb being not much 

 more than that of the body. Metatarsus with two prominences, the inner of which is not 

 much larger, but considerably more prominent than the outer. Tarsus without longitudinal 

 fold. Toes half-webbed. Adult specimens uniform brownish- or greyish-olive above ; young 

 ones marbled with brown on the back, and with blackish below. 



The orbital ridge is much less developed in young specimens than in old ones, the head 

 being almost flat in individuals the body of which is about one inch long. There is also a 

 difference in the development of these ridges in specimens from different localities : in none 

 have 1 seen them so much developed as in some old Ceylonese examples, in which they are 

 from three to four lines high. This species varies also considerably in the number of 

 tubercles — as, for instance, they are more numerous in examples from the Peninsula of India 

 than in those from Ceylon, Pinang, or Java. Bornean examples are smoother than all the 

 others, and I have seen specimens from that island with scarcely any tubercles on the back. 



A form most aberrant from the typical specimens of this species is found in the Himalayas 

 (in Sikkim and Nepal). The tubercles are very numerous and rough, small ones sometimes 

 extending on to the crown of the head ; the ridges of the cranium are very feeble ; and the 

 tympanum is generally entirely hidden. The legs also are somewhat longer, the length of 

 the body being equal to the distance between the vent and metatarsal tubercles. Thus, this 

 form might be separated as a distinct species on the same grounds as those on which " Bana 

 corrugata " has been separated from Bana kuhlii. But, on examination of several examples, 

 we find that a few of them have the tympanum distinct, and that others have the hind limbs 

 not quite so elongate as the majority, thus approaching the typical form of the lowlands. 

 We may propose for this alpine form the name of Bufo Tmlanostictus, var. himalayanus. 



This is one of the most common Batrachians of the Indian region, and appears to inhabit 

 every part of the continent and of the archipelago, from the peninsula of Southern India to 



