SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT OF THE SPECIES. 99 
about equal to second; toes half webbed; subarticular tubercles single; two 
moderate metatarsal tubercles; a short tarsal fold; the hind limb being carried 
forward along the body the tarsometatarsal articulation reaches the angle of 
the mouth; upper surfaces with small warts of very even size; parotoids promi- 
nent, elliptical, obliquely placed; male with a subgular vocal sac. 
Colour (in life): — Uniform brown varying, darker or lighter as the case 
may be, to a dirty yellow with brown blotches, the lower surfaces uniformly 
pale. 
Dimensions: — Tip of snout to vent 111 mm. 
Tip of snout to posterior edge of tympanum 36 mm. 
Greatest width of head 48.5 mm. 
Fore leg from axilla 53 mm. 
Hind leg from vent 130 mm. 
The big common Sapo of Cuba is found very widely distributed throughout 
the Island. It is, however, by no means invariably possible to secure speci- 
mens. The species is strictly nocturnal and is irregular in its appearance. 
On hillsides where there are scattered rocks and where there is some shade 
Bufo peltacephalus is often abundant; also about country towns, living in the 
mouths of the drains of tile made to carry off the rush of water which falls 
during the torrential showers of the rainy season. As many as five or six of 
these toads have been found together under the trunk of a fallen Barragona 
Palm where they had excavated a large cavity for themselves. While they do 
not burrow like Bufo empusus they often prepare a large chamber with a tunnel 
entrance beneath the stone or log where they may have taken up abode. Its 
voice, frequently heard all night after a shower of warm rain, is loud and sounds 
like an ill-tuned guitar. When one approaches the toad it hushes at once and 
will not sing again while one remains close at hand. Of its breeding habits 
little is known; the young are common and may be found during most of the 
year. Gundlach in his Erpetologia Cubana (1880, p. 83) gives a simple 
and quite fascinating bit of folk lore. He says that the peasants believe 
that a toad may cure erysipelas as follows:—a toad is rubbed over the 
affected regions of a victim of erysipelas and then the toad is to be carried 
off and hung up. As the toad dies the disease will disappear; should the toad 
escape the result is not so sure. We might observe by way of explanation that 
hanged toads take a long time to die and in Cuba victims of erysipelas usually 
recover. This belief with many others persists to the present time. As with 
