556 M. G. A, BOXJLENGER ON THE [NoV. 16 



they are depressed and half-webbed ; the subarticular tubercles are 

 large and single-rowed. 



The back is covered with more or less prominent, sometimes spi- 

 nous, distinctly porous warts of various sizes ; as in the preceding 

 species, those at the angles of the mouth are much developed. Very 

 often a series of larger prominent warts extends on each side of the 

 body ; this character is very conspicuous in specimens from Denmark. 

 - The upper surface of the forearms and calves is nearly smooth ; that 

 of the arms and thighs is slightly warty. The granules of the lower 

 surfaces are larger and more distant from one another on the lower 

 belly and under the thighs. 



The upper surfaces are covered with large, irregular, insuliform, 

 more or less confluent, olive or green spots, often margined with 

 black, on a greyish, brownish, or pinkish ground. These spots are 

 sometimes smaller, isolated, resembling the markings of some species 

 of Felis. They are rarely interrupted on the vertebral line, as is 

 the case in B. raddei. The larger warts of the angles of the mouth, 

 of the sides of the body, and sometimes of the back, of a reddish or 

 pinkish tint. The large greenish spots are generally more accen- 

 tuated in females than in males. Contrary to what Dr. Fatio' 

 thought, the specimens always have a duller coloration during the 

 breeding-season. A character which has often been used as dis- 

 tinguishing this species from B. calamita is the absence in the former 

 and the presence in the latter of a yellow vertebral line. But this 

 line, which is sometimes wanting in B. calaniifa, sometimes occurs 

 in B. viridis ; I have seen many specimens, from Italy and from 

 Algiers, which exhibit more or less distinct traces of it. The lower 

 surfaces are dirty-white, sometimes without, sometimes with more or 

 less abundant blackish or olive spots. The presence or absence of 

 these spots does not correspond with the sexes. 



The iris is greenish yellow, vermiculated with black. 



The males are furnished with a subgular vocal sac, which is much 

 less developed and less pigmented than that of B. calamita ; as in 

 the latter, the openings which give access to the air are sometimes 

 on the left, sometimes on the right side. JBlackish rugosities occupy 

 the inner side of the first three fingers during the breeding-season ; 

 on the thumb they cover a much greater surface than in any other 

 species of Bufo. 



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

 and a half as broad as long, in contact on their whole inner sur- 

 face, or slightly separated behind by the prolongation of the upper 

 plate of the ethmoid. The fronto-parietals are flat, much broader 

 backwards than forwards, especially in males ; the fontanelle is much 

 smaller than in B. calamita. The zygomatic apophysis of the tem- 

 poromastoidians is very short. 



The vertebral column, to the base of coccyx, measures once and a 



third ill males, once and a half in females, the length of the skull. 



The diapophysis of the seventh and eighth vertebrae are rather 



strongly directed forwards ; those of the ninth or sacral are a little 



^ Faune des Vertebres cle la Suisse, iii. p. 413. 



