194 



PELOBATID^E. 



Fig. 72. 



Open mouth. 



Vomerine teeth in two strong, transverse, slightly 

 oblique or slightly curved series between the choanaB, 



the inner borders of which they touch, 

 and narrowly separated from each 

 other in the middle. Eustachian tubes 

 very small. Tongue large, thick, cir- 

 cular, sometimes entire, usually feebly 

 nicked behind. 



Head very convex, broader than 

 long, the occiput gibbose; the skin 

 adherent to the skull; snout rounded, 

 projecting beyond the mouth, as long- 

 as or a little longer than the diameter 

 of the orbit ; no canthus rostralis ; nostril midway 

 between the eye and the tip of the snout ; eye large, 

 prominent ; interorbital space convex, much broader 

 than the upper eyelid, and a little greater than the 

 distance between the nostrils ; a sort of low knob 

 behind the eye, formed by the squamosal bone. 



Fingers moderately elongate, pointed, third much 

 the longest, first and fourth equal and slightly longer 

 than second ; subarticular tubercles very indistinct ; 

 two rather indistinct carpal tubercles. 



Hind limbs robust and short, with swollen calves ; 

 the tibio-tarsal articulation reaches the shoulder or 

 the commissure of the mouth, and the tarso-metatarsal 

 the eye, or between the eye and the nostril ; tibia 

 shorter than the femur, the heels being widely sepa- 

 rated from each other when the legs are folded. 

 Foot much longer than the tibia ; toes short, pointed, 



broadly webbed, at least two- 

 thirds webbed in summer, the 

 web reaching the tips of all the 

 toes in the spring ; subarticular 

 tubercles indistinct ; a very large, 

 compressed, sharp-edged inner 

 metatarsal tubercle, placed ob- 

 liquely to the axis of the foot 

 like the inner toe, which it equals or slightly exceeds 

 in length. 



Fig. 73. 



Lowei' view of foot. 



