Pseudacris occidentalis 205 



called C. occidentalis in the Southeast is doubtless what the resident naturalists, 

 Holbrook and LeConte, called C . ornatus. The only collector and resident in 

 recent years who has Hved in the Southeast long enough to collect and observe 

 three forms of Pseudacris is R. F. Deckert (1913-1915). In 1913 he found C. 

 nigritus, C. ocularis and C. occidentalis, the latter "plentiful, in scattered 

 companies." In 1915 he gave us the only detailed first hand account since the 

 description of C occidentalis. 



His whole account is worthy of repetition. His descriptions and accounts 

 read like our experiences with P. ornatus in Helotes and Beeville, Texas, in 

 1925. His notes are: 



"Chorophilus occidentalis, B. & G. is a beautiful species, rarely seen except 

 in early spring. At this time, however, it occurs in great numbers in the large, 

 shallow bayous, where it stands almost straight upright, on some twigs or 

 weeds, with its large throat pouch distended, giving vent to its piercing call. 

 This call is very loud, similar in pitch to that of Hyla pickeringi, but much 

 shorter, and at a distance sounds like the ring of a steel chisel, when struck 

 with a hammer. 



"This is the largest species of the genus Chorophilus, attaining a length of 

 I 1/2 inches, from snout to vent. It is stout of body, the head is pointed, the 

 arms and legs rather short and stout. The toes are very shghtly webbed, the 

 disks on fingers and toes scarcely noticeable. The subarticular tubercles are 

 very prominent. 



"The structure of this species indicates terrestrial, possibly subterraneous 

 habits. I have dug specimens out of the sweet potato hills in my garden. 



"The smooth, shiny upper surfaces are rich reddish brown or fawn colored, 

 like specimens of our northern Wood frog. There is a black band on each side, 

 beginning at the nostril, running through the eye, over the tympanum to the 

 shoulder. The edge of the upper jaw is silvery white. The groin is rich yellow 

 or orange, with large elongate or round black spots. The undersides are white, 

 faintly spotted with brown at the throat, flesh colored posteriorly. On the 

 back there may be two broad, dark brown parallel bands. The arms and legs 

 are banded more or less distinctly with brown." This was the only one of 

 Deckert's Jacksonville Anuran species we missed. We did not arrive early 

 enough to find it in activity. 



The P. occidentalis- P. ornata difficulty can be easily settled with new 

 material taken from South Carolina to Texas. Pseudacris does not have nine 

 species in U. S. A. Too many personal equations enter the problem with 

 scanty material. And Litoria occidentalis Baird and Girard may be a Riceboro 

 (Georgia) form as Cope believed but is it not C. ornatus of LeConte, its col- 

 lector, and a familiar student of C. ornatus at Riceboro, Georgia? He never 

 said Riceboro, Ga., had both C. ornatus and C. occidentalis. To populate 

 South Carolina to Florida with 5 species of Pseudacris is overcrowding and the 

 placing of the so-called San Francisco Litoria occidentalis (1853) in the South- 

 east was not apparently honored by LeConte two and one-half years 

 later (December 1855,) in his Descriptive Catalogue of the Ranina of the 

 United States. LeConte himself collected Baird & Girard's L. occidentalis 



