Allen.] 198 [December 2, 



The above list embraces all the Anura, or toads and frogs, thus far 

 detected in the State, but one, the Dan vers toad (Bufo Fowleri Put- 

 nam), — if this really be a species distinct from the common Bufo 

 americanus, as Mr. F. W. Putnam, than whom we have perhaps 

 no higher herpetological authority, fuUy believes. Mr. Putnam 

 states that it dijBfers most markedly in its notes and habits from 

 the common species, and also appreciably in the shape of the front 

 part of the head. Prof E. D. Cope, however, deems it only a variety 

 of the common species, with which he also unites the B. leniiginosus 

 of the Southern States. Mr. Putnam beUeves that no one who 

 observes this animal in life can doubt its distinctness from the common 

 toad; hence we give it provisionally a place in our hst. If a distinct 

 species, it has, so far as known, a remarkably restricted range, not 

 having been found thus far outside of the single town of Danvers, 

 and scarcely, it is said, outside of a single garden. 



11. Plethodon erythronotus Baird. (Salamandra erylhromla 

 Green, Storer's Rep., p. 245.) Red-backed Salamander. Common. 

 Quite numerous in damp, rocky woods, running over the leaves in 

 damp weather, or concealed beneath stones or fallen wood. Probably 

 the most abundant species here of the wliole order. They* vary 

 greatly in color, representing the so-called Plethodon cinereus Tschudi 

 (Salamandra cinerea of Green and some subsequent authors), 

 with every intermediate condition between this and what are con- 

 sidered to represent typically the erythronotus. Much more abundant 

 in the mountainous portions of the State than in the immediate 

 vicinity of Springfield. We once observed them in great numbers 

 under rotten wood, in a muddy spring hole, near the foot of Mount 

 Tom, about the last of April. 



12. Plethodon glutinosus Baird. (Salamandra glutinosa 

 Green, Storer's Rep., p. 252.) Blue-spotted Salamander. Not very 

 common, but apparently much less so than some of the others. 

 Dr. Holbrook considered this " the most common of the North 

 American Salamanders, and most widely diffused, abounding from 

 latitude 43° to the Gulf of Mexico." He says it " lives most of 

 its time concealed under rocks, or under the bark of fallen and decay- 

 ing trees, and is frequently so numerous that many are found under 

 the same tree." Dr. Storer states in his Report that he had received 

 but one; I have found it much less common than either Plethodon 



