Ratia clamitans 353 



albino. The first writer noted the scarcity of albino frogs. I have only seen 

 in the field one albino green frog, one albino meadow frog and Bufo americanus. 

 I have received two specimens of albinistic tadpoles of Rana heckscheri. 



COLORATION OF SPIRIT SPECIMENS (1912) 



(Spirit specimens of 191 2). On the back the color may be from deep 

 grayish olive through chaetura drab or mummy brown to olivaceous black or 

 almost black; in the young the colors incline the lighter side of the above 

 range and in these there are two, at times three prominent cross bars on the 

 femur and tibia, also cross barring on the tarsus and outer surface of the foot 

 and indistinctly on the forelimbs. In many of the adults these bars or spots 

 do not show at all or are faintly indicated; in a few they appear but may be 

 broken up. In the adults the small dark circular spots of the young are 

 absent or seldom present and the upper parts are almost a monochrome. In 

 most of the adults a black oblique bar extends from the angle of the mouth on 

 to the brachium and the back border of the forelimb has a prominent black 

 bar on the brachium and antebrachium; in all the adults the upper jaw ahead 

 of the eye is Hke the general dorsal color except for the snout which at times 

 is spotted with white spots; the whole edge of the lower jaw is a series of con- 

 spicuous alternate blotches of yellowish white or white and brown or black. 

 Except in very black individuals there is a yellowish white or white line from 

 beneath the tympanum (rarely from beneath the eye) over the arm insertion. 

 Tympanum brownish with a central disc of body color; the posterior faces of 

 the thigh are mottled with black and the anterior faces of the thigh less so; 

 the inner edge of the tibia has three or four short cross bars; also along the 

 outer face of the tarsus is a broad black band with a yellowish white line at 

 its lower border. This black band usually runs on to the two outer metatarsals. 

 In all the specimens are the more or less characteristic dark blotchings of the 

 sides, these spots being partly on the dorsal color and partly on the light 

 ventral color. The ventral color is white or yellowish white but is not im- 

 maculate as in our northern specimens. In many the under parts are heavily 

 marbled or reticulated with black, being the strongest on the throat and 

 upper breast regions and on the under sides of the thighs and legs. In some 

 where quite light beneath the reticulations or markings are faintly outlined 

 over the whole venter. In one specimen, a female, the throat and upper 

 breast region is almost solid black. In our northern forms when transforming 

 or just transformed, the frogs are very spotted or dotted on the throat and 

 under parts of the legs, but in the adults these marks are more or less lost. 

 In these southern forms the young are even more spotted on the venter and 

 the process consists in an intensification of spotting the reverse of the north- 

 ern tendency. 



STRUCTURAL CHARACTERS (WRITTEN IN 1 91 2) 

 In none of these forms is the skin rough to the touch. On the dorsal sur- 

 face there are fine round mamillations, most coarse on the sides; the head is 

 without these and is merely pitted, the most rugose part being the outer half 



