66 NEW- YORK FAUNA. 



GENUS SCAPHIOPUS. Holbrook. 



Body short, thick swollen. Head short. Minute teeth in the upper jaw and on the palate. 

 A small parotid gland behind the ear, from which a watery fluid can be pressed. Poste- 

 rior extremities short, stout and muscular. Legs shorter than the thigh. A spade-like 

 horny process occupies the position of a sixth toe, and is used by the animal in excavating. 



HERMIT SPADE-FOOT. 



SCAPHIOPDS SOLITABIUS. 



PLATE XIX. FIG. 47. — (STATE COLLECTION.) 



Scaphiopus solitarius. Hoi.BROOK, N. Am. Herpetology, Vol. 1, p. 85, pi. ]2. 

 Rana holbrookii. Harlan, Med. and Phys. Researches, p. 105. 



Characteristics. Ash grey, with. two yellow curved lines from the eyes, dilated, and subse- 

 quently united at the vent. Length two inches. 



Description. Head short, obtuse. Nostrils subterminal. Eyes very large, and placed in 

 very prominent orbits. Tympanum small, and behind it a small parotid gland, which upon 

 pressure e.xudes an acrid fluid. Fore feet long, four-toed ; posterior with five toes, and a long 

 black horny process on the metatarsus. 



Color. Back ashen grey, passing into dark brown, with dark brownish and reddish tubercles 

 on the flanks. Irides golden ; and in a modified light, the iris is seen divided into four parts 

 by a vertical and horizontal line, giving a lozenge shape to the black pupil. Tympanum dull 

 yellow. From the eye on each side there runs a yellowish line, punctate with black, 

 approaching each other, then diverging in a curved direction, and finally uniting on the rump ; 

 the position of these two lines resembles the outline of the antique lyre. A bar of a similar 

 color, but interrupted on the flanks. Coccyx with a broad longitudinal yellow stripe. Upper 

 surfaces of the extremities brown, with yellowish blotches. Body beneath greyish white. 



Length, 2-0. Breadth of the head, O'T. 



This singular animal, whose structure is so remarkable as to have required a separate 

 genus, was first detected by our eminent Herpetologist, Dr. Holbrook. With the teeth of a 

 Frog, and parotid glands of a Toad, its natural place is between these two genera. It was 

 first detected in South-Carolina, and subsequently found in Tennessee, and its geographical 

 range was considered to be quite restricted. We have now the pleasure to include it in the 

 Fauna of New-York. Specimens of this animal were found by Mr. Hill, in a garden near 

 Clarkstown, Rockland county. It lives in small holes, in damp earth, a few inches below the 

 surface, which it excavates with great ease by means of its spade-like processes. In these 

 holes it lies in wait for such insects as may approach, and I suspect can spring forth to seize 

 whatever may be passing incautiously near its hiding place. I remarked, at least in those 

 which I had alive, that it leaped with great apparent ease to a considerable distance. To 



