52 BULLETIN 160, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



some time between October, 1851, and October, 1854, and in all 

 probability during the spring of 1854 while Schott was in charge of 

 the party surveying the Rio Grande between Laredo and Ringgold 

 Barracks, Tex. This specimen can not be located. 



One lot of eight newly metamorphosed young of Bujo debilis 

 (U.S.N.M. No. 2621) was collected by Lieut. Darius Nash Couch 

 at Matamoros in the State of Tamaulipas. In 1853, Couch, acting 

 under instructions received from the War Department, made a survey 

 for a Pacific railroad in northern Mexico. Letters on file in the 

 archives of the Smithsonian Institution show that Couch made prep- 

 arations for his forthcoming Mexican trip at Fort Miffhn, near 

 Philadelphia, Pa., and that, although he received orders to proceed 

 to Brownsville, Tex., in October, 1852, he was notified by Professor 

 Baird on December 26, 1852, that the letter from the Mexican minister 

 addressed to Couch in care of Professor Henry had been received. 

 It is thus apparent that Couch did not reach Brownsville before 1853, 

 and this assumption is confirmed in part by the fact that the first 

 specimens collected at that locality are dated February, 1853. 



The exploring expedition conducted by Lieutenant Couch reached 

 Matamoros, Tamaulipas, on March 1, 1853. While there Couch 

 purchased the collection of Luis Berlandier and presented it to 

 the Smithsonian Institution. Baird acknowledged its safe arrival 

 in Wasliington on April 25, 1853. The party then proceeded west- 

 ward through the States of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Coahuila, 

 at least as far as the Rio Nasas in Durango. The report of this 

 exploring expedition was never published, and it is difficult to deter- 

 mine from the labels attached to specimens the route followed on 

 the return trip to Brownsville. A specimen labeled as having been 

 taken by Lieutenant Couch at Ringgold Barracks, Tex., is dated 

 July 15, 1853, and this date would seem to indicate that the trip was 

 one of short duration. There are, however, other specimens that 

 are labeled as having been taken in August, 1853, in Nuevo Leon and 

 Tamaulipas. It is apparent, however, that all the Mexican speci- 

 mens received from Couch were collected during 1853, since he arrived 

 in Washington some time prior to January 10, 1854. Couch re- 

 mained in Washington for some months writing a report on the 

 explorations made by his party in Mexico, and was then ordered 

 to Boston, Mass., and in October, 1854, to Fort Leavenworth, Kans., 

 where he remained until he resigned from the Army on April 30, 1855. 

 These specimens are undoubtedly cotypes of Girard's species. 



Two specimens (U.S.N.M. No. 2622) from Chihuahua, collected 

 by Dr. Thomas H. Webb, are designated in the museum caWogue as 

 the cotypes of Girard's Bufo insidior. The preservation of these 

 specimens is fair, but both are very much bleached. Doctor Webb 

 was the secretary and surgeon of Commissioner Jolm R. Bartlett's 



