2642 FROGS AND TOADS 



of the toes into smooth discs, the horizontal pupil of the eye, and the presence of 

 teeth on the vomer. The Antillian frog or, as it is locally termed, coqui is an 

 inhabitant of several of the West Indian Islands, and may be recognized by its 

 warty under surface; the general color of the upper parts being gray or brownish, 

 with indistinct darker marking on the head and back, and crossbars on the hind- 

 legs; while there is a large dark mark on the temporal region, and another near 

 the muzzle. The remarkable fact connected with the reproduction of this species 

 is that such transformations as are undergone by the larvae take place within the 

 large eggs; the creatures emerging from which undergo no further alteration, with 

 the exception of the absorption of the remnant of the tail. In this respect the 

 coqui resembles the sharp-nosed frog of the Solomon islands. 



As the typical representatives of the family, brief mention must be 

 Piping Frogs made of thg piping frogs (Leptodaclylus) of Central and South 



America, which differ from the preceding genera in having a dagger-like bony style 

 to the breastbone; and having the pupil of the eye horizontal, and the teeth on the 

 vomers placed behind the apertures of the inner nostrils. Externally these frogs 

 closely resemble the ordinary European water frogs, with the exception that the 

 hind- toes are not webbed. In the males the humerus is expanded into a large 

 flange-like plate; and in the breeding season the whole fore-limb is much swollen 

 for the purpose of firmly holding the female. These frogs derive their names from 

 their loud pipe-like croaking, which varies in tone and intensity according to the 

 species. Some are noteworthy from their habit of digging a hole in the ground 

 near water, and lining it with a layer of scum, upon which the eggs are deposited, 

 and left to hatch. The nests seem, however, always to be so placed that at a 

 certain season they will be flooded by the rise of the neighboring water. When 

 first hatched the tadpole is not unlike that of the frog, although with a relatively- 

 smaller tail; and when the nest becomes flooded the mode of life of its occupants is 

 similar to that of the ordinary frog larvae. 



THE TOADS 

 Family BUFONID^ 



Passing over the unimportant family of the DendrophryniscicUe^ including only 

 two small South- American genera, our next representatives of the suborder are the 

 true toads, which constitute a family distinguished by the absence of teeth in both 

 jaws, and the expansion of the extremities of the transverse processes of the sacral 

 vertebra. The vertebrae resemble those of the typical frogs, and there is the same 

 absence of ribs as in the latter. The terminal joints of the toes are either blunt, or 

 T-shaped; and in only two out of the eight genera is the pupil of the eye vertical. 

 Two of the genera approximate in character to the preceding family. The toads 

 have an almost cosmopolitan distribution, and while the more typical forms are 

 characterized by their terrestrial habits, rough skin, and creeping gait, so unlike 

 that of the frogs, others are burrowing, and others, again {Nectes), thoroughly 



