underside of legs rose. The females are usually lighter than the 

 males. The wood brown or cinnamon parotoid gland is well de- 

 veloped or may be broken into a glandular ridge along the side. The 

 fingers are long and slender, free of webbing; the toes, slightly 

 webbed. The head is flattened, slightly broader than long, the snout 

 obtusely pointed, and with no visible tympanum. The skin is smooth 

 or slightly roughened with granules, wrinkles, warts, and small 

 tubercles. The conspicuous ''tail" of the male is level with the ventral 

 side of the body. This is 1/8-2/5 inch (3-10 mm.) long, 1/6-1/5 

 inch (4-5.5 mm.) broad. The anus is a large swollen orifice just back 

 of the constricted tip. The female appears much like a tree toad. 



Structure: The tail is an intromittent organ; lower jaw from be- 

 low an almost perfect semi-circle; second, third, and fourth vertebrae 

 bearing short ribs; tongue attached by broad surface, and cannot be 

 protruded; arms of male conspicuously heavier than in the female as 

 also are the hind limbs and feet. Breeding males with dark excres- 

 cences on the inner edge of the inner fingers, along the inner edge of 

 the forearm and a ball-like excrescence at the base of the thumb and 

 oftentimes with dark excrescences on each side of the breast; tuber- 

 cles much finer on the rear portion of the back and on the hind legs 

 in the female; eye / large with a vertical pupil. 



Voice: No vocal sac. 



Breeding: Known dates are in May, June, July, August, and 

 September. The eggs in circular masses of rosary-like strings are at- 

 tached to the under side of stones in creeks. The eggs are not pig- 

 mented, few in number, and very large, 1/3 inch (8 mm.), the yolk 

 1/5 inch (5 mm.) in diameter. The tadpole is medium in size, 1 4/5-2 

 inches (45-51 mm.), its body round, its tail long, its crests not con- 

 spicuous. The tooth ridges are 3/10 (upper ridges with more than one 

 row of teeth). The period of development is probably over winter. 

 They transform during July and August, at 3/5-3/4 inch (14-18 mm.). 



Notes: Mrs. Gaige working in the Olympic region of Washington 

 wrote: "It was under the rocks in these little creeks that Ascaphus 

 lived. . . . One found them only by working slowly upstream and 

 turning over every movable stone. -. . . When placed on land they 

 were awkward and stupid in action and appearance and made little 

 effort to escape. They were solitary; never found more than one 

 under a single stone and individuals were usually well separated in 

 the stream." 



37 



