420 BULLETIN 3-1, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Bana Jlaviviridis Harlan, in Sillim. Avuer. Jouru. Sci., x (1825), 58; 1 b., Journ. Ac. 



Nat. Sci. Phila., v (1827) 338 ; 1 b., Med. & Pliys. Ees. (1835), 103, 220. 

 Sana horkoiieiisis Holbr., N. Amcr. Ilcrp., 1st ecL, in (1838), 91, xviii ; 1 b., 2(1 ed., 



IV (1842), 91, xvm ; Thoiupsou, Nat. Hist. Vt. (1842), 121 ; De Kay,N. Y. Zool., 



Ill (1842), 61, xxii, fig. 62. 

 Bayia nigricans Agassiz, Lake Superior (1850), 379, vi, tigs. 4, 5. 



3Iale. — Body and limbs very stout and massive; not much depressed. 

 Legs short; head subacute, rounded, very deep. Nostrils large, oval; 

 situated on the rounded and indistinct canthus rostralis, nearest to the 

 snout, and distant from the orbit by half the diameter of the eye. Ex- 

 cavation anterior to the eye shallow, scarcely distinct in passing under 

 the eye to the tymi)auum. Tympanum very large, one-fourth greater 

 than the eye, and extending quite up to it, and passing beyond the ar- 

 ticulation of the jaw; one-half the length of line from commissure to 

 the tip of snout; its central third elevated in a shallow prominence. 

 Eyes large, contained two and three-fourth times in chord of lower jaw 

 and two and one-fourth in that from commissure. Head ratber larger 

 than broad. 



In the female the tympanum is much smaller, though still large; about 

 three-fourths diameter of eye, and distant from the latter by nearly half^, 

 its own diameter. The average diameter in males is 11™'", and in fe- 

 males 8'""\ Occasionally this character does not hold good. A male 

 (No. 3402) has the diameter only 8"»", while three females (Nos. 3467, 

 3475, and 3524) have disks of 10™'" in diameter. J n this species and in 

 the E. catesbiana this membrane reaches a larger size than in any other 

 species of Batrachia. 



The top of the head is plane, without any concavity. The tongue 

 is large, fleshy, ratber narrow, and free behind for one-fourth its length. 

 The interior nares are large, and open posteriorly nearly opposite the an- 

 terior canthus of the eye. The vomerine teeth are in two oblong patches, 

 inclined backwards, where they are nearly, if not quite, in contact, and 

 l)osterior to the posterior margin of uares, though anteriorly about on 

 a line. Eustachian openings large. 



Skin more or less mammillated above and on the sides by coarse 

 pustuliform prominences, largest on the sides; these occasionally are 

 in the form of regular asperities, rough to the touch; the amount of this, 

 however, depends somewhat on the conditions of preservation. From 

 the eye extends a prominent ridge of skin, whicb, after passing above 

 the center of the tympanum, bifurcates, one short branch passing 

 round the tympanum, and, tbickening below, stops above the shoulder; 

 beneath this for its whole length passes a well-defined furrow indenting 

 the fold, and, proceeding directly downwards, separates the thickening 

 just described from a corresponding and equal thickening just behind 

 the jaw. The long branch of the ridge or fold of skin behind the eye 

 proceeds along the sides, occasionally interrupted, and is lost on the 

 posterior fourth of the body, those of opposite sides parallel and wide 



