624 MR. G. A. BOULENGER ON THE [Nov. 17, 



Anz. 1891, p. 65). It has been found as high up as 5000 feet in 

 Switzerland (Fatio, Vert. Suisse, iii. p. 362) and 6500 feet in the 

 Pyrenees. In Spain and Portugal it is represented by a distinct 

 variety (var, boscce, Lataste) . 



Its tadpole is one of the most useful for anatomical and physiolo- 

 gical purposes, both on account of its size and the facility with 

 which it can be procured, being abundant wherever it exists and found 

 all through the year, often remaining two years before transforming 

 (Wiedersheim, Zool. Anz. 1878, p. 104). The breeding-season lasts 

 from the spring to the end of summer. The tadpole, which does 

 not leave the egg until after the loss of the (uncommonly large) 

 external gills, is usually deposited in small reservoirs, cow-ponds, 

 flooded quarries, pits in brick-fields, &c. Eor accounts of the 

 breeding-habits of Alytes ohstetricans, consult A. de I'Isle du 

 Dreneuf, Ann. Sc. Nat. 6, iii. 1876, art. 7, and Heron Royer, Bull. 

 Soc. Zool. France, 1886, p. 671. 



19. Alytes cisternasit, Bosca. (Plate XLVII. fig. 8.) 



I am indebted to M. Ed. Bosca, the discoverer of this very 

 distinct species, for several tadpoles, from the Sierra Morena, at 

 different stages of development. The largest measures 69 millim. : 

 body 20, width of body 15; tail 42, depth of tail 14. 



I regret to be unable to detect any character by which this 

 tadpole may be surely distinguished from that of A. ohstetricans. 

 Heron Royer and Van Bambeke state that the labial teeth are less 

 distinctly arranged in double rows, and their figure, in fact, repre- 

 sents the second upper series only as formed of a double row. 

 Bedriaga, on the contrary, describes the first upper series as with 

 two rows of teeth and the second with two or three, the first and 

 second lower series with two rows aud the third with three, just as 

 is usTially the case in A. ohstetricans. I find constantly two rows 

 in the first upper aud first lovier series, two or three in the second 

 upper, two in the second lower, and two or three in the third lower. 

 Bedriaga adds that the tail is shorter than in A. ohstetricans, only 

 about once and a half the length of the body ; this difference, again, 

 is not borne out by our specimens, as may be seen from the measure- 

 ments given above. 



Tail with small black spots, more crowded and often forming 

 vermiculations on the muscular portion of the tail, the space 

 occupied by the lateral groove being, however, usually free from 

 spots. 



The tadpole of A. cisternasii, which inhabits Spain and Portugal, 

 has been figured by Bosca (An. Soc. Esp. x. 1881, pi. ii. figs. 4-6) 

 and described by Heron Royer and Van Bambeke (/. c. p. 289, 

 pi. xxii. fig. 5) and by Bedriaga (Larves des Batraciens de Portugal, 

 Coimbre, 1891, p. 14). It is to be found all the year through 

 (Bosca, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1880, p. 253). 



