AMPHIBIA AND REPTILIA OF COLORADO 255 



In this connection it may be noted that the pools of very hot water 

 near several of the hot springs were death-traps for Bufo horeas and 

 several other animals. From one such pool, the water of which was 

 at 54° C, three large specimens of this toad and several insects were 

 taken, the flesh of all being thoroughly cooked. 



Bufo punctatus Baird and Girard 

 Red-spotted Toad (Figs. 8 and 9) 



Bufo punctatus Baird and Girard, Proc. Adac. Nat. Sci. Phila., Vol. VI, p. 173, 1852 

 (Rio San Pedro of the Rio Grande del Norte). 



Head moderately broad, its width equaling or slightly exceeding its length; length 

 of the head about 3.5 in the total length; bony crests wanting on the top of the head, 

 or sometimes feebly developed (in alcoholic material the skin of the head may be so 

 shriveled as to render the crests of the head quite apparent) ; parotoid glands somewhat 

 elevated, subtriangular and small, not much larger than the eyes and not equal to the 

 width of the head; a small bony ridge between the ear and the eye on each side of the 

 head; general outline when seen from above ovoid, the entire animal being rather more 

 elongate and less globose than the heavier species of toads (as Bufo cognatus Say) ; neck 

 region rather well defined; body not much wider than the head and somewhat depressed. 



Ground color grayish or reddish brown, varying to greenish; dorsal surface of the 

 body rather uniformly covered with small warts which are tipped with bright red or 

 orange; bases of the warts more or less dusky; ventral surface of the body yellowish 

 to orange; throat of the male dusky. 



Size rather small, length 2 to 3 inches. 



This toad is included here in the herpetological fauna of Colorado 

 for the first time, specimens having been taken on Basin Creek near 

 the northern line of San Miguel County, about six or eight miles 

 from Naturita, Colorado, at an elevation of about 6,500 feet. These 

 specimens were captured by Mr. Henderson and Roy Coffin on June 

 19, 1914. This record of the red-spotted toad extends its range about 

 150 miles north and about 350 miles north and northeast up the 

 Colorado River drainage, as the most northern locality from which this 

 species has been recorded previously is the floor of the Grand Canyon 

 of the Colorado between Kaibab and Cocanini Plateaus.^ 



Bufo punctatus ranges across southwestern United States and 

 northern Mexico from central Texas through southern New Mexico 

 and Arizona into Lower California. Stejneger, I.e., states that 



» Stejneger, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 3, p. 117, 1890. 



