74 



BULLETIN 160, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the type has never been recognized among the unlabeled specimens 

 returned to the National Museum by the executors of Cope's estate. 



The habitat of Bujo woodhousii is by no means restricted to moun- 

 tainous regions, but includes surroundings as diverse as the sagebrush 

 flats of eastern Montana, the prairie fields among the chalk cliffs of 

 western Kansas, the Hudsonian Zone mountain sides of eastern Colo- 

 rado, the irrigation ditches that traverse the mesquite plains of New 

 Mexico, and the bottomlands along the Colorado River near Yuma, 

 Ariz. During May and June, according to locality, adults of this 

 species may be found breeding in shallow, sluggish creeks, in irriga- 

 tion ditches, or in fresh-water pools in the canyons. 



The upperparts of this toad are generally grayish or dull yellowish 

 brown, conspicuously blotched with a darker color or without such 

 markings; vertebral stripe wliitish; limbs obscurely barred; under- 

 parts light yellowish, with or without black markings on breast; 

 largest warts red-tipped and encircled at base with narrow black 

 border. The cranial crests are distinct, but not high; can thus rostra - 

 lis generally distinct; interorbital space either concave or convex, 

 depending upon the approximation of supraciliary crests, which may 

 either parallel one another or diverge slightly posteriorly; parietal 

 crests generally lacking, but supracihary crests may be thickened at 

 their posterior extremities; parotoid glands often in contact with post- 

 orbital crests, about twice as long as broad, their maximum diameter 

 being almost twice the length of the orbit; inner metatarsal tubercle 

 large, with free cutting edge. 



Specimens examined. — Two as follows : 



Bufo woodhousii 



Family LEPTODACTYLIDAE Berg 



1896. Leptodactylidae Beeg, Anal. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires, vol. 5, p. 161, 

 Nov. 28. 



Noble ^^ has attempted to throw doubt on the validity of the 

 family Leptodactylidae by advancing the argument that "they can 

 not be distinguished by any family character from Bufo" and that 

 "the bufonid and leptodactylid genera exhibit no constant features 

 by wliich to distinguish them." The validity of the family Lepto- 

 dactyUdae seems to resolve itself into the difficult matter of deter- 



" Noble, G. K., Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 46, art, 1, pp. 20, 21, 1922. 



