nostril, nostril area smooth; crown without bony ridges; snout short, 

 blunt; interorbital space about equal to upper eyelid; first finger at 

 least equal to second; toes half webbed; sole tubercles large, each with 

 a cutting edge; tympanum much smaller than the eye. 



Voice: The vocal sac is a large fat oblong ''sausage." Deflated it 

 forms a light apron covering several darker folds in the rear of the 

 throat. The call is loud and shrill, a trill. 



Breeding: They breed from May i to July 10, or a few stragglers 

 later, with the late summer rains. The brown and yellow eggs are in 

 long fine coils, the jelly tube narrow, 1/12 inch (2 mm.), the eggs 

 crowded, 14-20 eggs in 1 1/5 inches (30 mm.), the vitelli 1/16 inch 

 (1.4 mm.). They hatch in 2 days. The bicolored tadpole is small, 

 1-1 1/8 inches (24-28 mm.), light colored, its back a drab or light 

 grayish olive; its belly, pale cinnamon pink; its tail crests translucent. 

 The tooth ridges are 2/3. After a tadpole period of 40 to 60 days, 

 they transform, June 1 to August 1, at 1/2 inch (12 mm.). 



Notes: May 11, 1925. San Antonio, Texas. The next place we 

 stopped was Leon Valley Creek. Here was a big chorus of B. va//iceps y 

 B. debilis, B. compacti/is, and S. couchii in considerable numbers. 

 . . . B. compacti/is males were calling from the bank. Each one often 

 seemed to have a' favorite perch, and when scared away from it by 

 our light sometimes would return almost immediately. Their call is 

 loud and shrill, and a big chorus would be deafening. Their throats 

 swell out in sausage form like B. quercicus, only shorter and fatter 

 in proportion to their large size. 



May 29, 1925. Comfort, Texas. ... At the far end of the cultivated 

 field, the pond extended into a more grassy pasture. Here the B. 

 compacti/is were calling in considerable numbers. A few had standings 

 on the shore, several were out in clumps of grass. They are well 

 called the spadefoot toad. They are usually the associate of the 

 spadefoot (S. couchii). A few were calling when we first reached the 

 spadefoot pond. Their call is very shrill. ... In the pond were many 

 oats half-grown and more with oats on the stems. Beside an oat stem 

 a male would rest in the water in vertical fashion, sausage-like throat 

 extended 1 1/2-2 inches, directed outward and upward above his head 

 much like B. quercicus. 



June 16, 1925. We left Rio Grande City, Texas, 7:45 a. m. and 

 stopped at Santa Cruz ranch, opposite a hill with U. S. Geo. Survey 

 marker. At the top of the hill we could clearly hear B. compacti/is in 

 a pond across the road. These males which are croaking in the day- 

 time are in the dense shade of overhanging trees. 



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