Bufo quercicus 109 



teriorly so as to be transverse; a supratympanic crest; parotoid gland descend- 

 ing on sides to inferior part of the tympanum," — the diagnostic characters of 

 Bufo quercicus. Miss Dickerson (1906, p. 45) emphasizes the "Cranial crests, 

 inconspicuous; skin very tubercular, spinous on legs and arms; size small 

 (i 1/4 inches)." Both LeConte and Loennberg and others have found that 

 the superciliary crests can be straight at times. 



The identifications of the oak toads in the past have emphasized their 

 smallness, their scarcity in most collections, the paucity of good accounts of 

 them, and other factors. For example, it is not surprising to find a young 

 Scaphiopus holhrookii identified as Bufo quercicus or the young of other Bufo 

 species thus termed. We have seen as many as ten different accessions in 

 collections of earlier years dubbed "Juvenile," "Young," "Half-grown" 

 when in almost every instance they were full grown males and females ex- 

 ternally apparent as such. The collectors did not distinguish them as oak 

 toads nor were they used to seeing the species. 



COLORATION OF SPIRIT SPECIMENS (19 1 2) 



Coloration. — Upper parts greyish through light to dark brown or almost 

 blackish. From the tip of the snout to the vent runs a sharply defined 

 white or yellowish white line and even in the darkest-colored individuals. In 

 the series of comparable small southern toads this vertebral color is absent 

 or if present, is irregular and primarily along the middle third of the back. 

 There are 5 or 6 pairs of black spots along this line. Usually from the nostrils 

 of either side there extends backward a black or brownish bar which makes a 

 right angle turn to the front of the eyelid; the second pair begins on the 

 posterior part of the eyelid and extend rather obliquely to the vertebral line 

 and along it inside of the supraorbital crest to its end. These two pairs of 

 black or brown spots produce on the head a cross of intervening white color 

 one bar being the median longitudical vertebral line and the other a trans- 

 verse line from the middle of one eyelid to the other eyelid. Sometimes just 

 inside the anterior end of the parotoid and somewhat away from the vertebral 

 line is a pin point of a spot comparable to the same one in B. terrestris and 

 B.fowleri. On a line with the posterior ends of the parotoid are two other 

 large prominent spots which may be longitudinal or oblique in relation to the 

 median line. Halfway between the posterior ends of the parotoids and the 

 vent is another pair of spots and just ahead of the vent a sixth pair. This 

 sixth pair may be absent at times as are the 3rd pair. In some of the fighter 

 colored specimens from the posterior end of the parotoid there leads backward 

 along either side a prominent black band bordered above by an almost 

 equally wide white band. Also from the front part of the parotoid a dark bar 

 leads downward to the arm insertion. All of these spots and the whole dorsal 

 coloration pattern is very suggestive of the detailed color description of Bufo 

 fowleri (Dickerson, '01, p. 94) and of some of our B. terrestris already de- 

 scribed, but if these specimens be compared with B. terrestris representatives 

 of the same size, the latter have the spots more irregular, usually more or 

 less obscured by reddish brown tipped warts, smaller spots back of the 



