FIELD BOOK OF PONDS AND STREAMS 



Fig. 299. — Spadefoot toad, Scaphiopus holbrooki, 

 and I, foot enlarged. 



shyness and persistent habit of digging into the ground. 

 When kept in boxes of damp earth they hide themselves in 

 their burrows, coming out only at night, or occasionally on 

 dark days. 



They can pull their prominently bulging eyes down on a 

 level with the surface of their heads. The pupil of the eye is 

 a vertical slit like a cat's; in all other frogs and toads it is 

 round. The upper parts of their bodies are dark brown 

 streaked with longitudinal bands of yellow; their undersides 

 are white or pink (Fig. 299}. 



Breeding liahits. — Spadefoots come out of their burrows 

 at the end of April or later and are in the ponds or near them 

 until August, their migrations almost always occurring after 

 a long rain storm. Large numbers come simultaneously into 

 the pond. They stay there only two or three nights, but 

 during that time the males keep up a chorus of loud calls, 

 whose sound is increased by the resonator throat sac three 

 times the size of the head. Spadefoots leave the pond as soon 

 as the eggs are laid, and go back to their old burrowing habits. 



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