io8 Frogs oj the Okefinokee Swamp 



In igo8 (p. 19) Brimley held "Dwarf Toad (Bufo quercicus) "to be in the 

 Lower Austral Zone. In 1926 (p. 82) Wright held ''Bufo quercicus N. C. — 

 Fla. — Ala." to be one of the eleven species of frogs of the Okefinokee region 

 which might be held to be in the Sabalian Zone or region. The same year 

 1926 Percy Viosca Jr., in species of "Group I, Species Common to the Atlantic 

 and East Gulf Coastal Plains" writes "Excepting where governed by strictly 

 local ecological conditions, we can consider it axiomatic that species found 

 on the Atlantic Coastal Plain occur at least as far west as the Florida parishes 

 of Louisiana, an area lying in the extreme Southeastern corner of the East 

 Gulf Coastal Plain. My own observations have already extended westward 

 the known range of a number of species, the following of which can be in- 

 cluded in Group I: Bufo quercicus, Hyla gratiosa, Abastor erythrogrammus, 

 Leimadophis fiavilatus and Tantilla coronata. Those which have not pre- 

 viously been recorded as far west as Louisiana, I have taken in St. Tammany 

 or Washington Parishes." 



Local Okefinokee records. In 191 2 we wrote of it as follows: Twenty-four 

 specimens were taken in 191 2, sixteen May 28, 191 2, on the trip into the 

 swamp, three from May 3- June 2, two June 6, and three June 24. They 

 were secured on Billy's Island, Honey Island and at Mixon's Ferry. Their 

 occurrence in Okefinokee comes well within their range. There is no definite 

 place given for the Georgia records which LeConte (Cope '89, p. 292) made 

 in 1855. This species seems most common in Florida, where Brimley ('11, 

 p. 11) added four stations to Cope's three records for the State and Miss 

 Dickerson ('07, p. 105) has it from Ozona, Fla. It reaches its northern limit 

 in North Carolina. 



In 192 1 we took it on every island visited (Billy's, Floyd's, Honey, Black 

 Jack, Jones, Middle, Chesser and others); in the country surrounding the 

 swamp, such as The Pocket, from Hopkins to Waycross, from Folkston to 

 Waycross, along the Suwanee River to Fargo and along the St. Mary's River 

 from Moniac to Camp Pinckney (in 1922 from Camp Pinckney to St. Mary's 

 at its mouth). It is a very abundant and universally distributed species. 



GENERAL APPEARANCE 



Holbrook (1842, Vol. V, p. 13), its describer, gives its characters as follows: 

 "Head short; snout pointed; superciliary arches slightly elevated; body short, 

 very fiat, rounded at the flanks, above dusky, with a yellowish vertebral hne, 

 on each side of which are black blotches ; abdomen silvery-gray ; throat dusky ; 

 groins tinged with yellow." DeKay (1842, Vol. Ill, p. 68) speaks of this 

 extra-limited species as "very small." Cope (1889, p. 292) speaks of it as 

 "the smallest known species of the genus Bufo." 



C. S. Brimley (Dec. 1907, p. 157) has it as "Size small, length of head and 

 body one inch. Skin very rough. Bony ridges turning inward almost at 

 right angles just back of the eyes." In 1926 (p. 80) he characterizes it as 

 follows: "Size small, length of adult only i 1/4 inches, a white line down 

 middle of the back, skin very rough especially on legs." Cope (i88g, p. 261) 

 thought "One smaller metatarsal tubercle; superciliary crests incurved pos- 



