116 HYLA VERSICOLOR. 
notched, and free posteriorly; the palate is armed with two groups of minute 
teeth between the posterior nares, and interrupted in the middle slightly. 
The nostrils are rather near the snout. The eyes are large and _ brilliant, 
the pupil black, the iris of a bright golden-yellow. The tympanum is moderately 
large and circular, brown, surrounded by a circle of a lighter shade. The throat 
of the male becomes inflated while uttering its note. 
The superior surface of the body is covered with minute warts and granu- 
lations, an unusual character in this genus: its colour is changeable, passing in a 
short time through every intervening shade from dark brown to the palest 
ash-colour, becoming in some parts perfectly white; it is marked with large 
irregular blotches of dark brown; and we often find between the shoulders one of 
these blotches cruciform; they disappear, however, almosi entirely when the 
animal assumes its hghtest tint. The inferior surface of the body is white, with 
large granulations; a small portion of the sides and posterior part of the abdomen 
is bright yellow. 
The anterior extremities are ash-coloured above, with a few small blotches of 
brown; the fingers are four in number, cleft, and terminating in rounded pellets, 
by means of which the animal adheres to smooth surfaces. The posterior 
extremities are moderately long, and ash-coloured above, with a few transverse 
bars of dark brown, continued even to the toes; the under surface of the thighs is 
granulated and yellow near the abdomen, white in the middle, and yellow near 
the legs; the inferior surface of the leg is yellow, and of the foot brown. 'The 
toes are five in number, palmated four-fifths of their extent, and terminating in 
pellets, like the fingers. The skin above these pellets presents quite obviously the 
appearance of the “human nail,” spoken of by Linnzeus in other species. 
Dimensions. Length of the body from the snout to the vent, 2 inches; of the 
thigh, nearly an inch; of the leg, xc of an inch; of the tarsus and toes, 14 inches. 
GrocrapuicaL Disrrisution. The Hyla versicolor is found abundantly in all 
