86 Frogs of the Okefinokee Swamp 



Later that year he gave another note (19 15, pp. 52, 53) : "On the evening 

 of Aug. 4, 191 5, enormous numbers of Spadefoot Toads {Scaphioyus hol- 

 brookii) appeared in Patchogue, Yaphank, Middle Island and Coram. I made 

 a twenty-five mile circuit through the villages named, and found the toads in 

 practically every pool. There had been an extremely hard rain during the two 

 previous days." 



The next year on Long Island J. T. Nichols (1916, pp. 59, 60) makes the 

 following observations: "The morning of June 17, 19 16, after heavy warm rain 

 the preceding night there were singing Spadefoot Toads in a woodland pool 

 beside a road. At mid-day one was seen to cross the road and hop away from 

 the pool into the woods. Its color matched the leaf-carpet wonderfully. 

 Others remained all day. 



"One was captured in the pool and liberated the following day. It is 

 remarkable how completely it was able to hide in a closely cut green lawn in 

 bright sunlight by crouching at the bases of the grass. When liberated in the 

 woods it disappeared backwards under the leaves, and remained with just 

 the nose showing at the bottom of its entrance. On June 25, it was found 

 again in this same spot under the fallen leaves in a shallow burrow in the 

 ground, its nose showing. When disturbed it turned sideways, thus with- 

 drawing completely and filling the mouth of the depression with sandy soil. 

 July 3, on scraping away the dead leaves, there was no sign of the toad, but a 

 spot of loose soil detected was investigated disclosing it at a depth of about 

 I 1/2 inches. This was the last seen of that particular individual, as on July 

 9, there remained only a neat steeply-slanting burrow, about 3 inches deep, 

 empty. 



"A steady rain commencing the night before, continued through July 23, 

 on which afternoon Spad'efoot Toads were singing in a pool in pasture land 

 near stands of trees. During a temporary silence cattle came close to the pool, 

 only to gallop away in alarm when the noise recommenced. Investigation 

 disclosed singing Spadefoot s also in the woodland pool occupied several weeks 

 earlier, and a greater number in woods now flooded just across the road. 



"Points of interest in these data are coloration in the woods, skill at hiding, 

 recurrence in the same pool with favorable conditions after 36 days (See 

 Overton, Copeia, Nos. 20 and 24), and an individual's remaining 15 days in 

 one spot just under the fallen woodland leaves." 



VOICE 



Andrew Nichols (1852, pp. 113-115) gives considerable on the voice and 

 habits of this species. 



"In a shallow basin surrounded by ledges of green stone rock, which retains 

 water during the winter and spring, and is occasionally filled in summer by 

 great rains to the depth of one to four feet, on the brow of a hill in Danvers, over 

 which the old Essex Turnpike crosses, and near the intersection of this road 

 by the Newburyport Turnpike, an interesting colony of this rare reptile, 

 hitherto unobserved north of South Carolina, has been lately discovered. 

 Somewhere about the years 1810, 1811 or 1812, subsequent to a great rain in 



