10 BUFO LENTIGINOSUS. 



for his convenience. Towards evening he would wander about tlie room in 

 search of food, seizing greedily whatever insect came in his way. Some water 

 having been squeezed from a sponge upon his head one hot day in July, he 

 returned the next to the same spot, and seemed very well pleased with the 

 repetition; nor did he fail dui'ing the extreme heat of the summer to repair to it 

 frequently, in search of his shower-bath. 



General Remarks. Catesby first described and gave a figure of this animal 

 under the name of Land-frog; and although his figure is badly executed, both as 

 to drawing and colouring, (the elevation of the superciliary ridges not being 

 marked, and the eyes represented as red,) it has been I'epeatedly copied by later 

 naturalists, as Foster, Shaw, &c. The name, however, Rana (Bufo) terrestris, 

 cannot be retained, as it is previously applied to another animal. 



Bosc, who, from a long residence in Carolina, had a good opportunity of 

 examining this animal, refers it to the Rana musica of Linnaeus, in which he is 

 followed by Daudin, Merrem, and most naturalists. This cannot be correct, 

 tor there arc no toads, as far as has been hitherto ascertained, common to North 

 and South America; and Linnaeus, in the twelfth edition of the Systema Naturae, 

 gives Surinam as the country of his Rana musica. Neither the specific name 

 terrestris, nor musicus, can then be applied to this animal, but we must give it the 

 one next in order under which it is found described — Rana (Bufo) lentiginosa of 

 Shaw. 



