146 



ALLIACEOUS TOAD. 



Rana Alliacea. JR. pallida,fusco marmorata, linea dorsali albida, 



puplllis perpendicular ibus. 

 Pale-grey Toad, marbled with brown, with a whitish dorsal line, 



and perpendicular pupils. 

 Bufo aquaticus, altium redolens, maculis fuscis. Roes. Hist. Ran. 



p. 69. t. 17, 18. 



THIS species appears to have been first de- 

 scribed by the incomparable Roesel, who found 

 it in the neighbourhood of Nurenberg. In its 

 general form it much resembles the common 

 toad, but the head is rather longer in propor- 

 tion. The whole animal is also nearly smooth, 

 or almost void of those protuberances with 

 which the skin of the former is marked. Its 

 colour on the upper parts is a brownish grey, 

 deeper or lighter in different individuals, and 

 marbled with variously-sized spots or patches of 

 deep brown, which on the sides are so disposed as 

 to form a kind of reticular appearance ; and in 

 some specimens a few small spots of red or orange 

 colour are dispersed over the shoulders and sides. 

 The under parts are of a pale grey or whitish co- 

 lour. The eyes are remarkable for having the 

 pupil, when contracted, of a perpendicular form, 

 as in the eyes of cats, and not horizontal, as in 

 others of this genus. The spawn, which in the 

 common toad is deposited in the form of double 

 chains or strings of gluten, consists, in this spe- 

 cies, of a single string, of considerable thickness, 

 in which the ova are extremely numerous, and 



