94 THE HERPETOLOGY OF CUBA. 



near tip of snout and distance from eye slightly greater than its diameter; 

 fingers with enormous discs, toes with similar discs and completely webbed; 

 head broad (the breadth increasing with age, in young specimens the head is 

 longer than broad, in adults the reverse is true); skin of head involved com- 

 pletely in the cranial ossification; posterior outline of casque openly emargi- 

 nate (the degree of emargination varies greatly with age and in different 

 specimens); snout rounded; loreal region oblique, concave; canthus rostraUs 

 strongly marked; crown distmctly concave (less concave or abnost flat in half- 

 grown and young specimens) ; interorbital space nearly three times as broad 

 as the upper eyehd; tympanum large and distinct, at least two thirds the 

 diameter of the eye; the hind limb being adpressed to the body the tibiotarsal 

 articvdation reaches the eye; upper surfaces strongly tubercular, lower surfaces 

 coarsely granular, a fold above the tjTnpanmn; male with external vocal sacs 

 and blackish rugosities on the inner side of the first finger (during the nuptial 

 season only). 



Colour (in Ufe) : — Grayish varying to whitish, greenish or brownish, vari- 

 ously spotted and striped. Hinder side of thighs reticulated with black. 



Dimensions: — Tip of snout to vent 90 mm. 



Width of head 35 mm. 



Diameter of eye 9 . 5 mm. 



Diameter of tympanum 7 . 5 mm. 



Fore hmb from axilla 54 mm. 



Hind limb from vent 145 nam. 



Vent to heel 88 mm. 



The big tree frog is found throughout the entire Island, and is most abundant 

 everywhere in the groves of banana trees in the lowlands. It is often found 

 about the stone cisterns so widely used in Cuba, and its call, like the noise made 

 when a rope is drawn through an imoiled block, is frequently heard on rainy 

 evenings and even in the day time during a shower. The species is rare or 

 absent in the deep forest, being found, however, about cultivated plantations 

 at a considerable altitude. 



Gundlach and other naturalists beUeved that there were three species of 

 Hyla found in Cuba, but the type of Hyla wrightii Cope, which has been exam- 

 ined in the U. S. N. M., proves to be a synonym of Hyla septentrionalis. The 

 same is beyond doubt true of Hyla insulsa Cope, although the type has been 

 lost. 



