MEXICAN TAILLESS AMPHIBIANS 37 



No. 73, in Guadalupe Canyon, to the Colorado River (Monument No. 205). I 

 first met with it in a dense growth of arrowwood {Pluchea sericea) on the edge of 

 the Colorado River at Fort Mojave, Arizona, May 13, 1884. A specimen was 

 carried to Peach Springs and given into the charge of the hotel proprietor, who 

 allowed it to escape during my absence at the Grand Canj-on of the Colorado. 

 No specimen of this toad was again seen until July 6, 1892, when Lieutenants 

 Gaillard and Irwin and the writer lay down to rest upon the damp grass beside 

 the San Bernadino Springs, near Monument No. 77. At dusk these huge green 

 batrachians began to hop about us, occasionally lauding upon our faces. A few 

 were caught and saved as specimens. No more were seen by me until October 3, 

 1893, when Hospital Steward E. C. Merton brought me another that he had just 

 caught in a spring situated between Monument No. 73 and Cajon Bonito Creek, 

 in Sonora, Mexico. Another was taken at Quitobaquita Springs, Monument 

 No. 172, January 26, 1894. 



The potency of the toxins secreted by this large toad during the 

 physical stress of danger and pain has been recorded as follows by 

 Musgrave : ^ 



Just about sundown of that eveiiing [September 1, 1928] I was looking over a 

 planting in the front of our home when I discovered a large green toad in a stand- 

 pipe used for irrigation purposes. I lifted the big fellow out and dropped him 

 over the side. Our little wire haired fox terrier, standing near by made a dash 

 at the toad, but I spoke to her and she stepped back. Immediately the toad 

 swelled himself up, hissed at the dog and hopped a little way toward her. That 

 was too much, the dog immediately grabbed him and in one shake the toad was 

 dead. I was leaning over the standpipe and my face was perhaps 4 or 5 feet 

 from the toad while she was shaking it. 



About this time a large police dog that is a visitor at our home ran up and 

 touched his nose to the toad; the little terrier snatched it away. I thought no 

 more of it and started back to the house, the big police dog following. He had 

 gone no more than a hundred feet when his front legs crumpled under him and 

 he pitched forward. However, he gathered himself and then tipped backwards, 

 his legs and body being paralyzed. 



Immediately I realized that something was wrong and looking over to where 

 the little terrier had been I saw her lying on the ground with her feet crumpled 

 under her and her face in the dirt. I ran over and picked her up and found 

 that she had fallen on top of the toad as she was carrying it. I felt her heart 

 and found the action slow, and although she gasped and did her best, she could 

 get no air into her lungs. Within two or three minutes from the time she first 

 bit the toad she died. Immediately after death, bloody foam oozed from her 

 mouth and nose. 



About that time I became very sick myself, my head was swimming, and there 

 was a lifting feeling in my lung cavity. It affected me rather peculiarly, as I 

 wanted to walk and keep walking. I took a large dose of warm salt water and 

 after disgorging what I had in my stomach I felt better. However, the effects 

 did not wear off for about 30 minutes. The old police dog also revived in about 

 three quarters of an hour. 



I do not know whether I got the effects of the poison while leaning over the 

 standpipe or while working with the little dog, as I pried her mouth open and 

 tried to get salt water down her. I did not detect any odor whatsoever. I am 

 sure that I did not get the poison from the toad before the dog attacked it, 



• Musgrave, M. E., Bufo alvarius, a poisonous toad. Copeia, no. 173, pp. 96-98, Jan. 16, 1930. 



