550 M. G. A. BOTJLENGER ON THE [NoV. 16, 



loped on the limbs. The lower surfaces are covered with rounded 

 granules, which are much more developed and more distant from 

 one another on the lower belly and under the thighs. 



The coloration of the upper surface varies very much. The 

 ground-colour is greenish, greyish, brownish, or pinkish, with nu- 

 merous dark olive spots, very variable in size and in shape. These 

 spots are generally more distinct from the ground-colour upon the 

 Umbs. The body is often dotted all over with black. Tlie large 

 warts on the back are often reddish, margined with black ; those at 

 the angles of the mouth are of a beautiful red ; the parotoid and 

 tibial glands are often reddish. Nearly always a narrow yellow ver- 

 tebral line extends from the level of the anterior corners of the eyes 

 to the vent ; this line, however, may be more or less indistinct or even 

 entirely absent. Females have often a light undulous stripe on the 

 sides of the body. During the breeding-season males and females 

 have the tips of' the fingers and toes brown or black. The lower 

 surfaces are dirty white, more or less abundantly spotted with 

 blackish. 



The iris is greenish yellow, vermiculated with black. 



The males are furnished with a subgular vocal vesicle, which, when 

 swollen, much resembles that of the common Tree-frog ; the air 

 penetrates by a short slit situated in the mouth, sometimes on the 

 right side, sometimes on the left : in none of the specimens I have 

 examined have I found two of these shts. Daring the breeding- 

 season the male's throat is bluish or violet, and tlie first three fin- 

 gers are furnished on their inner side with blackish rugosities. 



Skeleton. — The prefrontals are large, subtriangular, convex, once 

 and a half as broad as long, separated backwards by an angular 

 prolongation of the superior plate of the ethmoid. The fronto- 

 parietals are flat, much broader backwards than forwards, especially 

 in males, with a rather large central fontauelle. The anterior arm 

 or zygomatic apophysis of the temporomastoidians is very short, ru- 

 dimentary. 



The length of the vertebral column to the base of the coccyx 

 equals hardly once and a half that of the skull in males, once and 

 two thirds in females. The diapophyses of the seventh and eighth 

 vertebrae are directed slightly forwards; those of the ninth, or 

 sacral, are strongly dilated, rather higher than broad. The coccyx 

 is deprived of any trace of diapophysis at its base, and is of the same 

 length as the skull. 



The first metacarpian or rudiment of thumb, which is so much 

 developed in the male B. viridis, is in this species scarcely distinct 

 and rounded. 



Geographical Distribution. — B. calamifa is a Western Palsearctic 

 species, inhabiting Scotland, England, Belgium, France, Spain and 

 Portugal, Southern Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, 

 Austria, and reaching eastwards to the frontiers of Russia. It seems 

 to delight in the sea-coast, being very abundant on the dunes ; in 

 the interior it is rather local than rare. 



