AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES. 85 
Diemyctylus viridescens Abbott, Nat. Rambles, 1885, p. 476.— 
Cope, Bull..U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 34, 1889, p. 207, Pls. 36 figs. 
B40 figee5 0, 40 figs. 3-4, 42 figi3, 45 fig. 9, 49-fig. 4.-— 
Sherwood, Proc, Linn. Soc. N. Y., 1894-95, No. 7, p. 35. 
Diemyctylus viridescens viridescens Cope, |. c. 
Notophthalmus miniatus Abbott, Geol. N. J., 1868, p. 803. 
Order SALIENTIA. 
The Leaping Amphibians. 
Body short, broad, and tail not present when adult. Usually 
no teeth in lower jaw. Young fish-like, or as a tadpole, with 
broad head, long tail, external gills and without limbs or teeth. 
They feed on vegetable matter and thus have very long intestines. 
By degrees they develop into the adult, which is more or less 
frog-like. The adult with 4 limbs, posterior pair long, strong 
and developed for leaping. 
This order, comprising the frogs and toads, reaches its greatest 
development in tropical America. Fossil remains occur as early 
as the Jura. 
Key to the families, 
a. ARCIFERA. ‘Thoracic region expansive, free and divergent ends of coracoid 
and precoracoid connected by 2 cartilaginous longitudinal bands, cartilage 
of 1 side overlapping other. 
b. Upper jaw toothless. BUFONIDA 
bb. Upper jaw toothed. 
c. Digits tapering, without viscid disks; a flat-edged spur at heel; 
parotids present; subterranean. PELOBATIDA 
cc. Digits usually dilated at tips to form viscid disks; no spur; no 
parotids; mostly arboreal. HYLIDA 
aa, FERMISTERNIA. ‘Thoracic region not expansive, 2 bands of cartilage 
united in median mass between adjacent ends of nearly parallel coracoid 
and precoracoid. RANIDA 
Family BUFONIDZE. 
The Toads. 
Jaws toothless. Vertebrz proccelous, without ribs, sacral more 
or less dilated. Fingers and toes free or webbed, and with 
