98 THE HERPETOLOGY OF CUBA. 



was temporarily flooded. They appear during the heavy showers, and for a 

 short while afterwards remain hopping about with Eleutherodadylus dimidiatus. 

 The fact that careful collecting in similar stations on the other mountains about 

 Guantanamo, as well as in very many different locahties in all parts of Cuba, 

 makes it seem probable that this species may be represented by this small iso- 

 lated colony at Los Hondones alone. Its ally, and it seems to have no other 

 very close relative anywhere, occurs far away, near Pinar del Rio. These two 

 groups probably represent the remnants, differentiated during their long isola- 

 tion, of some style of Bufo which once ranged more widely over the island. 

 For some reason unable to survive, perhaps because of coming into competi- 

 tion with more successful conquerors or from being specially preyed upon by 

 natural enemies, it is now on the very verge of disappearance. NaturaUsts of 

 the present day are witnesses to this phenomenon quite often in the West Indies ; 

 we need only recall the case of Cricolepis and Stejneger's remarkable account 

 of Bufo lemur in Porto Rico (Ann. rept. U. S. N. M. for 1902, 1904, p. 573), 

 or Peters's finding Bufo turpis in Virgin Gorda (c/. Barbour, Proc. Biol. soc. 

 Wash., 1917, 30, p. 102). Among manamals the status of Solenodon cubanus 

 presents a perfectly comparable example. 



4. Bufo peltacephalus Tschudi. 



Plate 13, fig. 2. 



Sapo; Sapo comun. 



Diagnosis: — The largest Antillean toad may be distinguished at once 

 from the three other Cuban species by the low and widely separated supra- 

 orbital crests and by the fact that the canthal crest (from eye to nostril) ends 

 in one or more very promiiient knobs. 



Description:— Adult M. C. Z. 3,724. Cuba: Pinar del Rio; Guane, March, 

 1915. Thomas Barbour. 



Skin of head completely involved in cranial ossification; crown with ridges 

 which are not especially prominent, although well defined; a canthal not con- 

 fluent with the supraorbital and ending in one or more prominent knobs; a 

 supraorbital also ending in a knob anteriorly, and forming a right angle with 

 the postorbital ridge; a prominent orbitotympanic ridge; snout short, bluntly 

 rounded; mterorbital space very broad, almost twice as broad as an upper 

 eyehd; tympanimi distinct about half the diameter of the eye; first finger 



