120 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



BUFO AGUA DaUDIN. 



The Great Surinam Toad, Bnfo agua, was the first of these species 

 to be introduced. F. C. Waite (: 01), writing in Science, gives a brief 

 account of its importation. 



" The history of its introduction, as gained from an interview with 

 Captain Vesey in July, 1900, is as follows: Captain Nathaniel Vesey 

 (at present a member of the Colonial Parliament from the parish of 

 Devonshire) ' about fifteen years ago ' engaged the master of a vessel 

 plying between Hamilton and Demerara, British Guiana, to secure for 

 him some of the Guianan toads, with a view to using them to catch 

 garden insects. The toads were brought from Demerara to Hamilton, 

 and were carried out to Devonshire by a native, who must have 

 purloined some of the animals, for individuals were seen near the 

 native's home (Tuckerstown), ten miles distant, soon afterward. 

 Captain Vesey liberated ' about two dozen ' individuals in his garden, 

 where they thrived from the first and ate many insects." 



Dr. Crozier has recently gi^'en me further data regarding the spread 

 and increase of the toad, 



"F. Goodwin Gosling, Esq., Hon. Secretary of the Bermuda Natural 

 History Society, who has had opportunity to observe Bufo agua in 

 Bermuda since the time of its introduction there, informs me that 

 after several years suljsequent to the first appearance of the toads 

 they had increased greatly in numbers, and that individuals of large 

 size were quite common. So numerous were they that in the spring 

 the roads near their spawning places were not infrequently made 

 literally black by hordes of the animals. They became, in fact, some- 

 thing of a public nuisance, through so many of them being killed by 

 carriages upon the roads. But in later years it has been very notice- 

 able that the number of the toads has greatly decreased, and that very 

 large specimens are by no means abundant. Moreover, the largest 

 size now seen does not appear to be anything approaching that of the 

 huge Bufos which were common twenty years ago." — W. J. C. 



Because of the facts mentioned above, and also because of its habit 

 of getting into water tanks, the big toad was not welcomed at first, 

 and was called Captain Vesey 's nuisance. Later it became known 

 that its principal food was cockroaches, and today it is thoroughly 

 appreciated and protected by public sentiment. 



In late June and in July I found these toads abundant about road- 



