342 
also calculates the history of the world in 
the future. 
Geology gives us similar knowledge of 
the past, and shows that the world has 
not developed by sudden changes, as was 
formerly supposed, but that it has developed 
in accordance with the same laws which 
now reign. : 
Harry C. Jones. 
BUFO AGUA IN THE BERMUDAS. 
One of the characteristics of the fauna of 
the Bermudas is the scarcity of terrestrial 
vertebrate forms. At present there is 
known but a single reptile (Humeces longi- 
rostris) and a single amphibian (Bufo agua 
Daudin). In 1884 Jones and Goode (‘ Con- 
tributions to the Natural History of the 
Bermudas,’ Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus.) recorded 
noamphibian. Heilprin (‘The Bermudas,’ 
Philadelphia, 18938, p. 84) says that in 1888 
he saw a few individuals of B. agua in the 
salt marshes. As far as recorded, no am- 
phibian had been known in the colony 
until the introduction of this species. 
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 
Demarara, 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 Demarara to 
Hamilton, and were carried out to Devon- 
shire 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’ indi- 
viduals in his garden, where they thrived 
from the first and ate many insects. 
From these two centers the animal has 
spread until it is common throughout the 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vou. XIII. No. 322. 
eolony. In its search for moist places it 
often gets into the cisterns, fouling the 
water. This fact, together with its ugly 
appearance and the common opinion that 
it is venomous, has brought it into disfavor 
with the inhabitants. 
The porosity of the rock permits no 
springs, streams or ponds in the islands. 
The only bodies of water are several brack- 
ish tidal ponds near the shore. There are 
some brackish marshes the salinity of 
which is less than that of the ponds, but 
which are by no means fresh. It is in these 
marshes that the animal breeds. It seems to 
have adopted these from necessity rather 
than from preference, for in Jamaica (An- 
drews) and in Brazil (Hensel) it spawns in 
fresh-water pools. 
The eggs are extruded ‘early in the 
spring,’ according to local report, but this 
must be regarded as uncertain until we 
have better evidence. In Jamaica spawn- 
img is said to occur in October, and in Rio 
Grand do Sul, Brazil, in the middle of win- 
ter (June). In July, while at the Bio- 
logical Station of New York University at 
Hamilton, I found large numbers of young, 
nine to fourteen millimeters long, in the 
grass and on the roads near the brackish 
marshes. They were especially abundant 
just after a shower. 
Bufo agua is the largest living Anuran 
known. ‘The largest specimen I have seen 
from Bermuda was collected by the New 
York University Expedition of 1898 and is 
now in the Zoological Museum at Columbia 
University. It measures 155 mm. from 
snout to vent, and weighs 960 gm. after 
having been two years in a four per cent. 
solution of formalin. 
This toad is found in South and Central 
America and in the warmer parts of Mexico. 
It has not been included in the Neoarctic 
fauna by either Cope or Garman. I have 
found no record of it west of the Andes fur- 
ther south than Chimbo, Ecuador (about 
