286 BULLETIN 34, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



ern localities, viz : No. 2505 from Eaciue, Wis,, and 2507 from Essex 

 County, N. Y. They are also characterized by the presence of a supra- 

 tympanic crest and by the coarseness of their tuberculation. They 

 have no distinct dorsal spots, a dark line round the bases of some of 

 the tubercles representing them in some individuals. 



There are also several color varieties of this subspecies. They are not 

 unfrequently met with entirely black (var. A), as, for example, from Penn- 

 sylvania and Michigan. In two or three from the latter region the foot 

 is as short as in short-footed var. woodhousei ; in one the superciliary 

 ridges are confluent iu a curved transverse ridge. A singular abnor- 

 mality (No. 2514) (var. B), from Moose River, British America, is distin- 

 guished by its yellow^, orange, or pinkish ground color, with the dorsal 

 and lateral spots confluent into longitudinal bands more or less broken ; 

 warts pink tipped- average size below typical; skin smoother. On 

 this variety was i)roposed the Bttfo copei of Yarrow and Henshaw. 



Yar. C. — A yellow ground with broad brown bands, having only yel- 

 low lines running outwardly and posteriorly ; on top of these the usual 

 brown spots are well distinguished. The cranial ridges are higher, 

 thicker, and more nearly parallel than usual. Specimens, are of large 

 size; they are from South Fork of the Yellowstone, Nebraska. Total 

 length, 4 inches 1 line; length from end of muzzle to postorbital ridge, 

 11.5 lines. 



Habitat. — Southeastern' Labrador, Packard, Proceed. Bost. Soc. Nat. 

 Hist., 1866 ; Moose Eiver, British America, Brexler; South Fork Yel- 

 lowstone, Hayden; Kansas, HaUowell, Proceed. Ac. Nat. Sci,, Phila., 

 1856, 251, and the Eastern and Austroriparian regions of North Amer- 

 ica generally. 



Dwellers in the country are familiar with the voice of this species 

 in the early spring, which is the season of the deposit of eggs. These 

 are laid inclosed in a long, thick-walled tube of transparent albumen, 

 secreted by the walls of the oviducts. These tubes lie in long spiral 

 strings on the bottoms of the i)onds where they are deposited. The 

 young hatch out early, and are of a darker color than those of others of 

 our Salientia. They retain the dark color till near the time of the com- 

 pletion of the metamorphosis. This takes place at an earlier date than 

 that of the Rante, and the completed young are scarcely as large as 

 those of the Hyhie or of the Scaphiopus. The voice of this species 

 may be heard w^ell into the summer. It is a sonorous urr-r-r-r r, which 

 may be readily imitated by whistling while one utters a deep-toned 

 vocal sound expressed in the above letters. Individuals differ in the 

 pitch of their notes, but a chorus of them has a weird sound well befit- 

 ting the generally remote spots where they congregate, and the dark- 

 ness of the hour. When not thus engaged, they often take up their 

 abode beneath the doorstep of the farmer's house, and issue in the even- 

 ing to secure their insect food. They progress by hops, and only walk 

 on very rare occasions. 



