Bufo terrestris 153 



In 192 1 we held the kilhfishes such as Gambusia, Lucania or Fundulus 

 doubtless did little damage to the eggs. Possibly some newly hatched young 

 might suffer. In some ponds turtles do considerable damage to tadpoles, or 

 to adults as well. In some of the breeding congresses we have chanced on 

 southern water snakes hunting for toads or frogs. At times we have caught 

 them in the act of seizing a toad or frog or with the subject partially down. 

 In 1922 on July 15 on our way out to Folkston we found a spreading adder. 

 It began to hiss and spread. By pressing a stick on it it turned over on its back. 

 By pressing farther it disarticulated its lower jaw and lolled out its tongue and 

 finally disgorged a freshly caught southern toad. 



AUTUMNAL DISAPPEARANCE 



The Cornell parties which entered the swamp in December and January 

 reported it in these months. In the U.S. National Museum collections there is 

 scant if any material taken in October and November and first of December. 

 In the same way our collection has little at these months. Doubtless from 

 November to January is its most inactive period. 



AFFINITIES 



In 191 2 we wrote ''Relationships. — The American toads of the old Bufo 

 lentiginosus series are yet in an unsatisfactory stage of analysis. At first Cope 

 employed the cranial crests as one of the cardinal characters of differentiation. 

 On this criterion Bufo terrestris and Bufo americanus can usually be separated, 

 the former with posterior ends of the frontoparietal crests very much elevated 

 and swollen and the latter with this region and whole crest low. Usually 

 this character suffices to separate the two though we can find within these 

 two a small degree of variability. The other two forms B. fowleri and B. 

 woodhousei have the crests parallel or divergent, raised or low, merged at 

 posterior ends or free and hence Miss Dickerson discards the character and 

 ascribes the confusion within this assemblage almost solely to the reliance on 

 this one character. If we rely on color we encounter an almost perfect B. 

 terrestris duplicate (No. 6575) of the B. fowleri in the vertebral arrangement 

 of the six pairs of dorsal spots as given by Miss Dickerson (p. 64). To be sure 

 the writers' impressions of the color of B. terrestris and B. fowleri are that the 

 former averages darker than the latter while the latter inclines towards the 

 greenish or yellowish grey. The under-parts of Bufo terrestris are not always 

 unspotted and Holbrook's figure shows the reverse condition. Our specimens 

 are about evenly divided on the point, and rarely B. fowleri from N. J., 

 L. I., and Woods Hole, Mass., are somewhat spotted though not as markedly 

 so as in the northeastern Canadian specimens of B. americanus while some of 

 the B. americanus of Ithaca may be practically if not solely unspotted. The 

 head length is equally emphasized as a good distinction but since Cope's 

 time most authors have not defined what they mean by head length in toad 

 descriptions. Cope measured to the end of the frontoparietal crests and Miss 

 Dickerson in her figure of terms employed gives the usual measurement to the 

 caudal border of the tympanum. On the latter basis some B. fowleri would 



