Scaphiopus holbrookii 83 



hard object they utter a clattering note entirely unlike that of the breeding 

 season." 



In 1896 C. S. Brimley asserts, "I have occasionally dug them out of the 

 ground." 



In 1899 G. A. Boulenger (pp. 790-793) in his paper describes the external 

 characters, measurements and skeleton in detail and remarks of its habits 

 thus: "The habits, so far as I have been able to observe them, are very similar 

 to those of Pelobates. They burrow in the soil in exactly the same manner and 

 come out only at night to feed. All my efforts to induce them to produce, when 

 irritated, the loud cries so striking in Pelohates have failed. On the contrary, 

 when teased, they assume a very humble appearance, bending down the head 

 at an angle to the vertebral column and shutting the eyes in a manner which is 

 well represented on the accompanying plate." 



In 1904 C. C. Abbott (pp. 163, 164) holds the Spade-foots may be one 

 explanation of the reported showers of toads. He writes: "The frequent 

 references in newspapers to occurrences of 'showers of toads' have suggested 

 to the author that a condition in the life-history of the spade-foot toad, a 

 little-known and strictly nocturnal species, living in the ground, might explain 

 them more rationally than that the little batrachians are picked up by the 

 wind in one place and dropped in another, perhaps miles away, or that other 

 still more strange view quite common among the ignorant that toad-spawn 

 is sucked up by the sun and hatched in clouds, where the tadpoles remain 

 until they have advanced to the dignity of hoppers, when they fall to the 

 earth. Unlike the common toad and the frogs, the spade-foot toad (Scaph- 

 iopus solitarius) does not have a regular season for deposition of ova, but the 

 eggs may be laid at any time from April i to August 31. Furthermore, this 

 batrachian does not resort to permanent water-courses or ponds on such 

 errand, but takes advantage of temporary pools formed by showers of longer 

 duration than is usual. It is remarkable how admirably this strange irregular- 

 ity of an important event should be adapted to transitory conditions. Pools 

 of rainwater seldom remain long on the ground's surface. Soakage and evap- 

 oration soon obliterate them; but that this may not prove a fatal objection, 

 the eggs of the spade-foot toad hatch in about ninety-six hours, and in less 

 than two weeks, or fourteen days at most, the tadpole has become a terrestrial 

 animal or a 'hopper' and leaves its nursery. The development is even more 

 rapid occasionally, I am led to believe, being accelerated by excessive warmth 

 or retarded if the days are cool and cloudy. 



"It will be readily seen that young spade-foot toads, congregated in or 

 immediately about a temporary pool, will not wander far from it when their 

 subterranean life begins, but will bury themselves in the comparatively moist 

 ground where they happen to be. Should, at this time of their limited wander- 

 ing, there occur one or more violent showers, the ground being wetted and 

 little pools formed, the young spade-foot toads would necessarily, we might 

 say, wander over a much wider extent of territory, and, escaping notice when 

 confined to one fast disappearing pool, would be observed when dotting the 

 ground over an extent perhaps of an acre or more. Seen thus, immediately 



