244 BUFONIDiE. 



strings, unlike those of B. vulgaris, lose their cylindrical 

 form two or three days after being laid, each inner 

 capsule swelling up, and ultimately assume a rosary- 

 like appearance. 



Tadpole (PL II, fig. 5). — Differs from that of the 

 common toad in the narrower mouth, which measures 

 less than the interocular space and a little more than 

 the distance between the nostrils ; the somewhat 

 more convex upper caudal crest ; and the lesser length 

 of the second series of upper Jabial teeth, which is 

 very broadly interrupted in the middle. 



Black above, sides and belly dark lead-grey, with 

 pale bronzy dots ; caudal crests grey, finely speckled 

 with black ; throat and chin sometimes whitish ; the 

 light vertebral line, characteristic of this species, 

 sometimes present before the appearance of the fore 

 limbs. 



This is the smallest European tadpole, seldom 

 reaching the length of 30 millimetres recorded by 

 Bedriaga. The following are the measurements of 

 the largest of hundreds of specimens examined by me. 

 Total length, 25 millimetres; body, 10; width of 

 body, 7 ; tail, 15; depth of tail, 5. 



Habitat. — The natterjack is a Western species, 

 abundant and generally distributed in France and the 

 Spanish Peninsula, becoming gradually more local to 

 the east, where it occurs in company with Bvfo virldis, 

 and not extending further than the Gulf of Ri^a, 

 Poland, Bohemia, and Galicia;* it is absent south of 

 the Alps and in the islands of the Mediterranean. In 

 the north it is found in Ireland, in Scotland on the 

 Moray Firth, in England, in Denmark, in Southern 

 Sweden, and in the islands of the Baltic. Its distribu- 

 tion in England is an irregular one, the species being 

 more local than rare, and apparently restricted to sandy 

 localities; it is on record from Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, 

 Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, Hert- 



* The record of B. calamita in Amourland is probably due to a con- 

 fusion with examples of B. vulgaris showing a light line along the spine. 



