light mineral gray or greenish. There are green spots on the back, top 

 of head and legs. The forward under parts are white, sometimes buffy 

 on the throat; the rear under parts purplish. The males have a wash 

 of grayish green on either side of the throat. 



Structure: Head broader than long, muzzle short and overhang- 

 ing the lower jaw; epidermis on top of head thick and horny; tym- 

 panum indistinct; no parotoid gland; tongue very large, entire; no 

 tibial or pectoral gland; hind limb, tibia, foot, 4th toe, and fingers 

 relatively longer than in Couch's or in Holbrook's spadefoot. 



Voice: The males call, lying on the surface of the water. The call 

 is a rolling or bubbling one, a croak more like the croak of some frog 

 than Couch's or the hermit spadefoot. The call has been described in 

 widely different ways; as the loud purr of a cat with the metallic 

 sound of grinding gears, as a low-toned tirr-r-r-r, as a loud crah-crah- 

 rah } and as a resonant ye-ow. It has been called unusual, weird, 

 plaintive and ventriloqual. 



Breeding: They breed from mid-April to August, dependent upon 

 heavy rainfall. The eggs are in cylindrical masses attached to grass 

 or plant stems. The eggs on the periphery of a jelly cylinder may look 

 stalked, the stalks 1/5-3/8 inch (5 or 6 to 9 mm.) long, and 1/16-1/10 

 inch (1.4-2.3 mm.) in diameter, the eggs 1/25-1/16 inch (1-1.6 mm.). 

 They hatch in 1 1/2 to 2 days. The dark greenish black tadpoles may 

 grow large, 2 3/5-2 4/5 inches (65-70 mm.) long. They are broad, al- 

 most round bodied in dorsal view, the eyes close together, the tail 

 short with rounded tip, the spiracle low almost ventral. Like most 

 spadefoot tadpoles, the musculature of the- tail stands out very 

 prominently. The tooth ridges are 5/5, 4/4, 3/4, 5/4. After a tadpole 

 period of 30 to 40 days they transform from May 20 to September 1, 

 at 1/2-1 inch (13-23 mm.). The tadpole is carnivorous in habit, and 

 may prey on its own kind, but it is a very effective enemy of the 

 mosquito. 



Notes: July 8, 1917. Quite a rain fell near Sierra Blanca, Texas. 

 At 7 o'clock, we heard no notes in the creek, but later from our 

 camp one half mile away, we heard the chorus plainly and decided 

 it must be spadefoots. We found toads and spadefoots of two species 

 migrating from the mountain side of Sierra Blanca toward the pool 

 and noise. . . . Along the edges of the swift stream now flowing 

 across the flooded area we found Scaphiopus couchii. Their cries 

 were catlike. The Scaphiopus hammondii were on the surface of the 

 water and their calls were bubbling. . . . the Hammond's male will 

 float like S. holbrookii. When he croaks, the rear half of the back dips 

 beneath the water. 



July 9. The stream has disappeared, now broken up by inter- 

 mediate mud flats. The spadefoots and toads have disappeared from 

 last night's rendezvous. 



41 



