ART. 25 CHINESE AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES STEJNEGER 9 



53371-3 and 53379-89 are without date, but as the breeding asperities 

 of all the males are in the same condition as those of the Shensi and 

 Kansu specimens they are fully comparable. Of these 14 specimens, 

 12 are adult males and two adult females. The males are practically 

 all uniform olive gray on the back with the warts pale (possibly red 

 in life), but the regular pattern of spots can be discovered in most 

 of them on the paratoid glands and on the tibia. In the two females 

 the typical brown pattern of spots is strongly contrasted against the 

 paler ground color. The Kansu and Shensi specimens are of a 

 slightly paler ground color. Those from Kansu are all males and 

 present an unbroken series of transition from a specimen (No. 

 39373) hardly distinguishable from the most uniform Chili male 

 to one (No. 39369) with a pattern as contrasted as that of the Chili 

 females. Among the Shensi specimens the adult female and the 

 largest young one are pale with normal well-developed and con- 

 trasted pattern; the three smallest are also pale, but the dusky 

 markings are less broad and on the back confined to" rings around 

 the pale (reddish?) warts; they are better defined on upper eyelid, 

 lores, and legs. 



Ii will thus be seen that we have no female or young specimens 

 of the uniform dusky type, the males from the Kansu locality show 

 a complete gradation between the two types of coloration which thus 

 can not be said to be absolutely diagnostic of the two sexes. Never- 

 theless, the distinction is probably more or less general. Sowerby 

 made the same observation in the field. In " Through Shen-Kan " 

 he writes as follows (p. 112): "Radde's toad {Bufo i^addei) is 

 characteristic of the country. This amphibian does not attain any 

 grent size. The female is very prettily marked, somewhat resembling 

 the iiatterjack of Europe; the male is of a dull greenish brown color, 

 and does not posses the beautiful marking of the female. There 

 can be no doubt of this animal's power to withstand drought. I have 

 found it amongst the sand-dunes of Ordos, as well as in the loess 

 hills of other parts. Specimens were secured in Kansu, within the 

 famine area near Len-chow Fu. Here, the natives said, there had 

 been no rain for three years. In spite of its frequenting such dry 

 places, it thoroughly appreciates an abundant supply of water, as 

 I have found them in the ponds and back-waters of rivers, not only 

 while spawning but at all times of the year, excepting winter. The 

 spawning season is regulated by the rains, and in a dry year I have 

 known it to be postponed till July." 



As Bedriaga ^ and Nikolski ^ have listed specimens in the Petrograd 

 Museum (Nos. 1052, 1655, and 1658) collected by Potanin in North 

 China and Mongolia as true Bufo viridis^ I have naturally examined 



^ Wiss. Res. Pi-zewalski Central-Asien Reis., Zool.. vol. 3, sect. 1, pt. 1, 1S98, p. 61. 

 « Fauna Rossij, Amph., 1918, pp. 101, 102. 



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