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a pond which in summer is dry, near his residence in 

 Cambridge. 



According to Dr. Holbrook, the animal is sohtary in its habits 

 throughout the year, except during the copulating season, which 

 is in the early spring, when it takes to the water. It commonly 

 lives in moist places, in holes, a few inches or more beneath the 

 surface of the ground, which it excavates by means of the little 

 digging plates attached to the hind feet. In this habitation it 

 quietly waits for its insect-prey. 



Prof. Wyman gave some account of observations on Scaphio- 

 pus which he had recently made. As already statied by Dr. 

 Borland, it is very rarely found in this section of the country, 

 having been previously noticed in only one locality, viz : in 

 Danvers, by Dr. Andrew Nichols, whose very interesting account 

 of it was published in the Proceedings of the Essex Institute of 

 Salem. 



The first specimen observed by Prof. Wyman was dug up in 

 his garden in Cambridge about a year since. In the latter part 

 of April of the present year, he obtained about thirty specimens 

 from a small pond in his neighborhood, where they Avere congre- 

 gated for the purpose of depositing their eggs. Those noticed 

 by Dr. Nichols were not found in the water till July, and then in 

 a small pond which was formed after a long rain, and which had 

 only a temporary existence. This shows, in the two cases, a 

 wide difference in the season in which the eggs are deposited. 



While copulating, the Scaphiopus grasps the female round the 

 pelvis and not under the axilla as do the frogs and toads. The 

 sexual impulse in the males is very powerful, and under its 

 influence they attach themselves to toads and frogs, if they 

 happen to come in their way ; or if one of them is removed 

 from the female, and the finger is placed beneath the male, it is 

 at once so firmly grasped that he may be lifted out of the 

 water before relaxing his hold. In almost every instance 

 observed by Dr. Wyman, the under surface of the abdomen of 

 the female was more or less ulcerated or abraded, in conse- 

 quence of long-continued pressure from the grasp of the male. 

 In one instance, where a male Scaphiopus was united to a female 

 toad, the latter deposited her eggs ; these very soon began to 

 shrivel and very rapidly underwent decomposition. 



