Scaphiopus holhrookii 77 



ever, till May 27th, 1866, that I happened to be fortunate enough to obtain 

 specimens! I found two in a path, after heavy rain, several hundred yards from 

 any permanent pool; and, during the day, several pairs spawning in different 

 small transient pools, though at this time they appeared sparingly. I also 

 heard them in Chickopee the following day, five or six miles distant from the 

 first locality. 



"In 1863, after unusually heavy rains towards the close of June, they came 

 out in immense numbers, the transient pools formed by the heavy fall of rain 

 seeming to be full of them; but they were heard only from i P. M. till about 

 3 A. M., of the following night; and being confined to the house by illness I 

 failed at this time to obtain specimens. Not having been in Springfield at the 

 proper time since, these are the only instances of their occurrence known to 

 me. Specimens collected here in 1866 were deposited by the writer in the 

 Springfield Natural History Museum, and in the Museum of the Essex 

 Institute. 



"The character of the season seems greatly to determine the time of the 

 appearance of these animals, for they rarely, if ever, appear except after long 

 continued rains, during which the fall of water has been sufficient to saturate 

 the ground thoroughly, and to form pools in situations ordinarily dry. If the 

 spring opens with heavy rains, it is not uncommon for them to appear during 

 the last of March, or early in April, often before the snow is gone ; if dry they 

 are not seen till later, and if no heavy rains occur during the spring or summer 

 months, as sometimes happens, they are not seen at all that year. If suffi- 

 ciently heavy rains occur in May, or even in June, or in July, and not pre- 

 viously, as happened one year at Springfield, they may be expected even then. 

 The present year, remarkable for its wetness, seems fully to demonstrate this, 

 no less than four sets of the Scaphiopus having been observed at Cambridge. 

 The first, few in numbers, appeared during the few warm days that occurred 

 about April ist; the second, much more numerous, April 15th; the third May 

 14th, and the fourth May 22d; each during, or immediately following, a very 

 heavy falls of rain. They were observed not only at the old locality near the 

 Botanic Garden, but in several others, including the pond west of the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology, and another east of it, formed by the temporary in- 

 undation of the marsh in Mr. Norton's woods. It takes but a few weeks for 

 the young tadpoles to mature, the eggs generally hatching in from five to seven 

 days, and the young being ready to leave the water in about three weeks; 

 yet the pools selected by the Spadefoot for the home of their off-spring often 

 become dry before the tadpoles are fully grown, and they consequently 

 perish, — so that ordinarily but a small part mature. The wetness of the 

 present year was not only favorable for their spawning, but also for the devel- 

 opment of the young, so that the increase of the Spadefoots must have been 

 unusually large." 



GENERAL HABITS 



Holbrook (1842, p. iii) holds that "it never ventures in water except at 

 the breeding season; it lives in small holes about six inches deep, excavated by 

 itself in the earth, which for a long time I mistook for holes of insects; here it 



