1899.] AMERICAN SPADE-FOOT. "91 



Mr. C. S. Brimley writes from Eayleigh, N. Carolina, to the 

 'American NatuMlist' (1896, p. 501) :—" Last May I collected 

 fifty breeding in a pool only a few yards frpm my house. In 

 every case the grasp of the male was inguinal. The cry was not 

 much louder than that of the common toad (Bufo americanus).'' 



The habits, so far as I have been able to observe them, are very 

 similar to those of Pelobates. They burrow in the soil in exactly 

 the same manner and come out only at night to feed. All my 

 efforts to induce them to produce, when irritated, the loud cries 

 so striking in Pelobates have failed. On the contrary, when teased, 

 they assume a very humble appearance, bending down the head at 

 an angle to the vertebral column and shutting the eyes in a manner 

 which is well represented on the accompanying plate. 



External Characters. 



Vomerine teeth in two small, transverse or oblique groups on a 

 level with the posterior border of the choanse. 



Tongue large, thick, circular, entire or feebly nicked and free 

 behind. 



Head large, convex, broader than long, with somewhat swollen 

 occiput ; crown and occiput rugose, the skin adhering to the 

 bones ; snout rounded, projecting slightly beyond the mouth ; 

 canthus rostralis rounded, lores very oblique ; nostrils nearer the 

 tip of the snout than the eyes, the distance between them half the 

 width of the iuterorbital space, which exceeds the width of 

 the upper eyelid ; eye large, prominent, lateral ; tympanum 

 distinct, circular or vertically oval, two-thirds to three-fourths the 

 diameter of the eye. 



Pingers short, obtuse, third longest, first a little longer than 

 second, fourth shortest ; no subarticular tubercles ; three round 

 flat carpal tubercles forming a triangle, inner largest, at base of 

 first finger, the two outer at the bases of the third and fourth 

 fingers respectively. 



Hind limbs robust and short, with swollen calves ; the tibio- 

 tarsal articulation reaches the shoulder or the tympanum ; tibia 

 shorter than the femur, the heels being widely separated from 

 each other when the legs are folded at right angles to the rhachis. 

 Foot longer than the tibia ; toes short, obtuse, three-fourths or 

 entirely webbed ; no subarticular tubercles ; a very large, com- 

 pressed, sharp-edged inner metatarsal tubercle, longer than and in 

 the axis of the inner toe. 



Skin finely granulate or with small flat warts ; black horny 

 granules on the crown and occiput and on the warts of the body 

 and limbs ; a short, roundish or subtriangular, moderately pro- 

 minent parotoid gland above the tympanum ; lower parts smooth 

 or feebly granulate ; a roundish flat gland usually present on each 

 side of the breast. 



Brown or dark olive above, uniform or with more or less distinct 

 darker marblings and often with a lyre-shaped pale brown or 

 sulphur-yellow, dark-edged band on the back, the branches widest 



51* 



