TAILLESS BATRACHIANS 235 



size — up to four and a half inches in length — transforms in 

 most cases towards the end of the summer. 



The Southern Spade-Foot, P. cultripes, of Western 

 and Southern France, Spain, and Portugal, differs from 

 P.fuscus in being rather larger proportionately and in 

 the skull being more strongly ossified ; the digits are 

 somewhat more obtuse and the shovel-shaped tubercle 

 still sharper and larger, and always of a shiny black. The 

 skin is smooth and covered with small round warts. The 

 coloration is somewhat similar to that of the commoner 

 species, but the markings are more olive than brown, and 

 very rarely confluent into longitudinal bands. 



Although more partial to the coast, the habits of P. 

 cultripes are similar to those of its congener. The eggs 

 differ slightly in the mucilaginous band being narrower. 



The American Spade-Foot, Scophiopus solitarius, of the 

 Eastern United States, differs from the members of the 

 genus Pelobates in the presence of a tympanum, and, in the 

 case of the male, of a subgular vocal sac. The coloration 

 is brownish above, marbled with darker. 



This batrachian burrows in a similar manner to Pelobates, 

 and comes out only at night to feed. Unlike the two 

 species of the European Spade-Foot, when irritated it never 

 produces loud cries, but, on the contrary, assumes a pecu- 

 liarly humble attitude, bending its head and shutting its eyes. 



The frogs of the genus Megalophrys, of South-Eastern 

 Asia, represented by eight species, which differ much in 

 size, some measuring not much more than an inch in length, 

 while others attain a length of four or five inches, have the 

 toes entirely free ; the tympanum is hidden. In most 

 species the skin becomes entirely adherent to the skull, 

 while on the back it is hardened by bony deposits. 



