100 THE HERPETOLOGY OF CUBA. 



so many of the larger species of Bufo the white discharge from the parotoid 

 glands is copious and powerful, and experience has taught both men and dogs 

 of its highly venomous nature. 



The yoimg are found in bands along the Guarda Rayas of the Guantanamo 

 cane fields in the spring, especially if it has been a rainy one. They develop 

 in the drainage ditches of the cane-fields and are beautifully marked with 

 splashes of rich dark green on the brown. 



There is a belief among the country folk, in many parts of Cuba, that the 

 big toad cannot Uve in the woods where the Cuban Solitaire (Myadestes eliza- 

 beth (Lembeye)) is found. For upon hearing the heavenly flute-like strains of 

 these glorious peerless songsters, the toads try to imitate them with their gut- 

 tural croakings so strenuously that their attempts end fatally. As a matter of 

 fact, however, the Bufo is not found in the deep woods about Guantanamo 

 where the Myadestes abounds, although it occurs plentifully about the Sierra 

 de Paso Real, Sierra de Guane, and in the valley of Luis Lazo where Solitaires 

 are very often to be heard; higher up to be sure than the toads, but well 

 within hearing. 



5. Bufo empusus (Cope). 



Plate 1, fig. 3. ., 



Sapo de concha; Guasdbalo. 



Diagnosis: — A rather small toad living in bm-rows, in large colonies, hav- 

 ing the whole head extremely hard and bony, the cephalic crests very prominent 

 and the lip margin hard and modified for digging. 



Description: — Adult M. C. Z. 2,833. Cuba: Pinar del Rio; Herradura, 

 March, 1910. Thomas Barbour. 



Top of head bony, with enormous crests, enclosing a deep hollow between 

 the orbits, the canthal crests meet anterior to the nostrils and form a V, then 

 merge with the enormous supraorbital crests; the anteorbital crest is likewise 

 prominent, the supratympanic crest is far less prominent and ends in a small 

 knob; two crests on the occiput converge but do not meet, they are continuous 

 with supraorbitals and are composed of high, flat tubercles partly confluent; 

 snout rather depressed, the labial margm produced into a hard flange extending 

 around the snout; tympanum elliptical, erect, its greatest diameter scarcely 

 one half that of the eye; parotoid gland small, long, simply the anterior elabora- 



