432 SPANISH-TOWN. 



great nuisance. I suggest to our savanna farmers, 

 who have convenient duck-ponds, like my young 

 friend Mr. Thompson, of Tredegar Park, who com- 

 plained to me of their depredations, that Marsh 

 Tortoises should be kept where these plaguy Anouras 

 resort. As they are carnivorous, and, in countries 

 where frogs are common, prey specially upon frogs, 

 as well as small fishes, and as their address in swim- 

 ming and their prompt movement enable them to 

 pursue their prey with avidity, the Emys or Marsh 

 Tortoise seems the best counterpoise to their in- 

 crease. Even if these should prove equally annoying 

 to the ducklings, their voiceless existence renders 

 them a more endurable nuisance. The frogs attack 

 the feet of the ducklings, and lacerate them, and 

 bite oflT their toes while swimming. Our farmers will 

 be obliged to reduce to captivity some of our large 

 Herons, to preserve their natatorial poultry from 

 this pest." 



The two specimens alluded to in these notes Mr. Hill 

 kindly transmitted to me. They proved to be that 

 enormous South American Toad described and figured 

 under so many titles, the Rana marina of Seba and 

 Linn., the Bufo agua of Latreille, Daudin, and Du- 

 meril. It varies exceedingly in form, proportions, 

 and colours : Spix, in his great work on Brazil, 

 has described and figured no fewer than eight forms, 

 to each of which he assigns specific names, but all of 

 which MM. Dum. and Bibr. consider as belonging 

 to the present species. In its greatest development 

 it is the most gigantic of all the Anourous Batrachia. 

 The whole coasts of intertropical America produce it, 



