SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT OF THE SPECIES. 99 



about equal to second; toes half webbed; subarticular tubercles single; two 

 moderate metatarsal tubercles; a short tarsal fold; the hind limb being carried 

 forward along the body the tarsometatarsal articulation reaches the angle of 

 the mouth; upper surfaces with small warts of very even size; parotoids promi- 

 nent, elhptical, obliquely placed; male with a subgular vocal sac. 



Colour (in hfe) : — Uniform brown varying, darker or Ughter as the case 

 may be, to a dirty yellow with brown blotches, the lower surfaces uniformly 

 pale. 



Dimensions: — Tip of snout to vent 111 uun. 



Tip of snout to posterior edge of tympanmu 36 mm. 



Greatest width of head 48 . 5 mm. 



Fore leg from axilla 53 mm. 



Hind leg from vent 130 mm. 



The big common Sapo of Cuba is found very widely distributed throughout 

 the Island. It is, however, by no means invariably possible to secure speci- 

 mens. The species is strictly nocturnal and is irregular in its appearance. 

 On hillsides where there are scattered rocks and where there is some shade 

 Bufo peltacephalus is often abundant; also about country towns, Uving in the 

 mouths of the drains of tile made to carry off the rush of water which falls 

 during the torrential showers of the rainy season. As many as five or six of 

 these toads have been found together under the tnank of a fallen Barragona 

 Palm where they had excavated a large cavity for themselves. While they do 

 not biUTow like Bufo empusus they often prepare a large chamber with a tunnel 

 entrance beneath the stone or log where they may have taken up abode. Its 

 voice, frequently heard all night after a shower of warm rain, is loud and sounds 

 like an ill-tuned guitar. When one approaches the toad it hushes at once and 

 will not sing again wliile one remains close at hand. Of its breeding habits 

 Uttle is known ; the young are common and may be found during most of the 

 year. Gundlach in his Erjjetologia Cubana (1880, p. 83) gives a sunple 

 and quite fascinating bit of folk lore. He says that the peasants believe 

 that a toad may cure erysipelas as follows : — a toad is rubbed over the 

 affected regions of a victim of erysipelas and then the toad is to be carried 

 off and hxmg up. As the toad dies the disease will disappear; should the toad 

 escape the result is not so sure. We might observe by way of explanation that 

 hanged toads take a long time to die and in Cuba victims of erysipelas usually 

 recover. This beUef with many others persists to the present time. As with 



