102 HYLA VERSICOLOR. 



surrounded by a circle of a lighter shade. The throat of the male becomes inflated 

 while uttering its note. 



The superior surface of the body is covered with minute warts and granulations, 

 an unusual character in this genus: its colour is changeable, passing in a short 

 time through every intervening shade from dark brown to the palest ash-colour, 

 becoming in some parts perfectly white: it is marked with large irregular blotches 

 of dark brown; and we often find between the shoulders one of these blotches cruci- 

 form; they disappear however, almost entirely when the animal assumes its lightest 

 tint. The inferior surface of the body is white, with large granulations; a small 

 portion of the sides and posterior part of the abdomen is bright yellow. 



The anterior extremities are ash-coloured above, with a few small blotches of 

 brown; the fingers are four in number, cleft, and terminating in rounded pellets, 

 by means of which the animal adheres to smooth surfaces. The posterior extre- 

 mities are moderately long, and ash-coloured above, with a few transverse bars of 

 dark brown, continued even to the toes: the under surface of the thighs is granu- 

 lated and yellow near the abdomen, white in the middle, and yellow near the legs; 

 the inferior surface of the leg is yellow, and of the foot brown: the toes are five 

 in number, palmated, and terminating in pellets like the fingers. The skin above 

 these pellets presents quite obviously the appearance of the "human nail," spoken 

 of by Linnteus in other species. 



Dimensions. Length of the body from the snout to the vent, 2 inches; of the 

 thigh, nearly an inch; of the leg, t^ of an inch; of the tarsus and toes, II inches. 



Geographical Distribution. The Hyla versicolor is found abundantly in all 

 the northern and middle States, as far as lower Virginia, which State must for the 

 present be considered its limit on the south. I cannot determine its geographical 

 distribution west of the AUeghanies; it seems however widely extended: — Mr. Le 

 Sueur has observed it on the Wabash, and Professor Troost furnished me with 

 several fine specimens from the banks of the Cumberland river. 



