126 Frogs of the Okefinokee Swamp 



bottom of a furrow in its deepest part and they deposited eggs. They moved 

 on. They don't leave all eggs in one place. Saw 7 or 8 oak toad pairs. All 

 amplexate axillary fashion". 



EGGS 



Attachment, egg mass. Holbrook, though he saw the female lay her spawn 

 does not describe the eggs, their form and characters. In 19 12 we made the 

 following provisional identification: 



On June 2, 19 12, in a shallow pool in the hollow between two growing corn 

 rows we found the small egg files of some kind of toad. At the time we had no 

 preservative or cans to take care of these and upon return the next day the 

 pool had dried up. Our one prominent impression was the smallness of the 

 egg string. The eggs were in one row like those of our northern B. americanus 

 and rested on the muddy bottom of this shallow impermanent pool, but the 

 egg-tube was much smaller in diameter and length. The egg string was not 

 carefully examined at the time and we cannot compare it with the eggs of the 

 common toads. We are, however, firmly convinced that these files were those 

 of the oak toad. Deckert (1914b, No. 9, p. 2) speaks of "The spawn . . . laid in 

 tiny strings, . . . ". In 1920 (p. 30) we speak of "The egg string or file is a small 

 edition of the southern toad's egg string, the former being much smaller in 

 diameter than the latter". Deckert and we each should have used bars or 

 short strings, for it better conveys the form of the egg mass. In 1923 (p. 406) 

 Wright and Wright speak of "Eggs in files. Bufo quercicus . . .'\ In 1923 

 (b, p. 34) Wright holds "Bufo quercicus lays its short bars of eggs on the 

 bottom of ponds". 



In 192 1 our first field notes on eggs came June 4. They are: "Found a 

 pond where male oak toads were calhng. Bufo quercicus eggs. Many parts of 

 an egg complement will be two, three, four, five or six eggs in a string or bar 

 independent of rest. One pair, at first laid nothing else but these bars. Often 

 times s or 6 will radiate from one center. These are all in same plane. Some- 

 times from one center bars extend in all planes, e.g., one of 13 bars; another of 

 30 or 40 or 50 bars. The jelly envelope closely fits the egg and the margin 

 becomes slightly indented between each egg. The eggs are black and white; 

 last night by flashlight the eggs looked creamy but fear we were wrong on this 

 observation. Egg more brown or brownish-black on upper pole. Apparently 

 the bars of eggs is comparable to the inner tube of B. americanus eggs and the 

 tube of jelly becomes pinched off or drawn out between each four or five eggs. 

 Sometimes eggs separating to bars, sometimes not. An egg bar will be from 

 2-3 mm. to 6 or 7 mm. in length. Vitellus i.o mm.; 9.5 mm., 9.0 mm.; .8 mm. ; 

 i.o mm. Whole bar 5.8 mm., leaves 1.15 mm. envelopes between on both ends 

 or about 2 mm. between each egg. A partition line between each egg". 



On July 3 we did not get an entire clue to field deposition but on July 1 7 

 on Chesser Island "In water 3-6 inches deep with dip net discovered one or two 

 strings of 4-6 eggs of Bufo quercicus. Became accustomed to finding the 4-6 

 egg bars on the bottom without dip net. The single bar or two of them seems a 

 regular deposition form in the field". 



