Say on Herpetology. 265 



ventral colour, of the same pale orange. Tt is decidedly aquatic- 

 Several specimens are preserved in the collection of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, ^nd from these it is evident that 

 the i-ecidish colour of the subocellate spots is destroyed by the 

 action of the antisei^t'"; l"":' lid ; t t'/s circumstance it is pro- 

 bably owing that these spots have been hitherto aescribed as 

 white. 



After stating these differential traits, it may be proper to 

 observe, that the S. maculuta of Shaw is synonymous with the 

 above. But 1 think it most proper to restore Gmelin's name 

 punctata, which will afford an opportunity to do justice to the 

 memory of Laurenti, by reviving; the original name by which 

 he distinguished the Far. /3. of Lacerta, aquatica, Gmel.,that 

 o£ parisinus. 



Bufo cornuta. This animal, which has been stigmatized as 

 the most prodigiously deformed creature known to exist ! ! is 

 generally supposed to inhabit North America as well as Suri- 

 nam. I do not think it has ever been found in North America. 

 Shaw, in Nodder's Nat. Misc. says it is principally found in 

 Virginia, but in his General Zoology, I tbink he says that Seba 

 was in error when he represented its native country to be 

 North America. Two other species of Bufo have been cor- 

 rectly stated to inhabit thi? counlry, viz. B. musicus, and 

 Crapaud rougedtre, Daud. (B. rubidv ') first noticed as distinct 

 by Mr. William Bartrara. I discovered a third species on the 

 banks of St. John's river, East Florida, which, as I am not at 

 present prepared to describe, I shall not surreptitiously name. 



It is, I conceive, an incumbent duty on the ''escriber of a 

 natural object, to deposit his specimen, or a duplicate, when 

 practicable, in some cabinet or museum, to which he should 

 refer, in order that subsequent writers may be satisfied with 

 the accuracy of his observations, by examining for themselves. 

 By such reference, and by the re-examination of the same 

 objects by others, the plethoric redundance of synonyma, that 

 prolific source of accumulating error, will be banished or elu- 

 cidated, and naturalists will most readily arrive at the know- 

 ledge of truth, which is, or ought to'^be, ihe grand leading object 

 of their labours. 



