BUFO LENTIGINOSUS. 9 



and bars of dark brown; the lower surface dirty-white, tinged with yellow. The 

 fingers are four in number, slightly depressed, and not palmated. On the outer 

 margin of the carpus, and opposite the thumb, is a large warty tubercle. The 

 posterior extremities are short, dusky brown above, marked with blotches and 

 transverse bars of darker brown, and dingy-white beneath. The toes are five in 

 number, and semi-palmated; the fourth a good deal longer than the others; the 

 metatarsus is furnished with two tubercles or knobs, the outer of which is carti- 

 laginous, and so long as to resemble a sixth toe. 



Dimensions. Length of body, 2 inches 7 lines; of the thigh, 1 inch; of leg, 

 rather less than an inch; of tarsus and toes, 1 inch 2 lines. 



Geographical Distribution. This toad is found in the Carolinas, Georgia, 

 the Floridas, and Alabama, and without doubt all along the northern shores of the 

 Gulf of Mexico. North Carolina or southern Virginia must for the present be 

 considered as its northern limit. 



Habits. This animal is timid and remarkably gentle in its habits, remaining 

 concealed during the day in some dark place, and only venturing out as the dusk 

 of evening approaches. It feeds on various insects, which it seizes only while 

 alive and in motion. Catesby says it lives on ants and fire-flies, and will mistake 

 a piece of burning charcoal for an insect of the latter description. The male 

 seeks the female in the month of May, when hundreds of them may be seen 

 together in some stagnant pool, in which they deposit their spawn, and then 

 return again to the land. The males at this season are extremely noisy, though 

 at other times they are silent, or make only a slight chirp when taken. Like 

 many of the Hyla tribe, they have a large sac under the throat, which is 

 distended when the animal croaks. 



I have seen an individual kept for a long space of time, which became perfectly 

 tame: during the summer months he would retire to a corner of the room, into a 

 habitation he had prepared for himself, in a small quantity of earth, placed there 



