HEKPETOLOGY OF PORTO RICO. 



573 



that during- all his forty years of collecting in the island he had never 

 come across it himself, and the six specimens which in that time he 

 had obtained were brought to him by the peasants as curiosities. 

 Neither Mr. Baker nor any of the Fish Commission parties saw it, and 

 for a long while all the inquiries of Dr. Richmond and myself were 

 unavailing. The natives knew the name "Sapo concho," but when 

 told to bring specimens they invariably handed in some Eleutlierodnr- 

 tylus or Leptodactyhts. A rumor had it that a certain druggist in 

 Arecibo many years ago had had a specimen on exhibition in his store, 

 and consequently we at last repaired to that city as a last resort. The 

 druggist was found and corroborated the rumor, but the specimen 

 had long since disappeared. We made diligent inquiries in the neigh- 

 borhood through our young friend Mr. Enrique L. Brascoechea, and 

 finally, as we had almost given up hope, he found an old beggar 

 who remembered a place where as a boy he had seen the sapos. He 

 was promised a substantial reward, and on the last evening of our stay 

 in Arecibo brought in live tine specimens captured about 3 miles south 

 of the town. He said he had found them in holes under the roots of 

 palm trees at the border of a fresh-water pond, where they keep in 

 hiding during the day. 



Bufo lemur is the only toad found in Porto Rico, and is not known 

 from any other island. In Vieques we were informed that the "Sapo 

 concho" occurs, but we failed to obtain specimens, although we made 

 special efforts and offered a high reward for specimens." 



List of specimens of Bufo lemur. 



o-Bufo marinus (Linnaeus), which occurs in many West Indian islands, probably 

 introduced, is only mentioned here, because Reinhardt and Lnetken write (Vid. 

 Meddel. Naturhist. Foren., 1862, p. 202; author's reprint, p. 50, footnote) that it is 

 occasionally brought to St. Thomas with lumber from " Vieques and Hayti." There is 

 no reason to believe, however, that the reported origin of these imported toads is 

 correctly given by their informant in so far as Vieques is concerned. Bufo marinus 

 is a very large species with enormous triangular parotoid glands, which are nearly 

 smooth. 



