432 J3ULLETIN 34, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



hardly the tip of the suout. A moderately prominent glandular lateral 

 fold. Upper parts grayish or brown, more or less spotted with dark 

 brown or black ; a more or less intense dark temporal spot ; a light line 

 from below the eye to the extremity of the temporal spot ; sides of 

 body largely spotted ; limbs transversely barred; beneath more or less 

 spotted. Male with two internal vocal sacs. 



The above synonymy and description are taken from Bonlenger, to 

 whom we are indebted for the most complete studies of the European 

 species of Rana. 



The typical form of this species is distributed over northern and tem- 

 l^erate Asia and Europe, but a subspecies is common in the western 

 regions of North America. This has been called Bana pretiosa by 

 Messrs. Baird and Girard. It differs from the Old World form as follows: 



Head from three and five-tenths to four times in length ; temj)oral spot more distinct; 

 li. t. temporaria. 



Head from three to three and five-tenths times in length ; temporal spot loss dis- 

 tinct B. t. preliosa. 



Rana temporaria pretiosa Bd, & Gird.* 



Eana pretiosa Baird. & Girard. Proceed. Ac. Phila. , 1853, j). 378; Baird, Proceed. Ac. 

 Phila., 185.''), p. 378; Girard. U. S. Expl. Exped., Herp., p. 20, PI. 2, figs. 13-18; 

 Cooper, U. S. Espl. Surv., xii., part ii. p. 304; Bonlenger, Bull Soc. ZooL Fr. 

 1880, p. 208; Cope, Proceed. Ac. Phila., 1883, pp. 20, 33; American Naturalist, 1879, 

 p. 435. 



The form is rather stout and the head is not so small as in the typical 

 jR. temporaria. The heel of the extended hind leg reaches to the poste- 

 rior border of the orbit, or from that point to the anterior border. The 

 inner cuneiform tubercle is small and obtuse, and there is a small ex- 

 ternal one. The following description is taken from a female: 



Body stout, depressed, in shape much like B. cateshiana. Head ob- 

 tuse, rounded, and subtruncate. Head broader than long. Canthus 

 rostralis not distinct. External nostrils small, circular, nearer the snout 

 than the eyes ; a shallow groove behind them with a minute papilla, as 

 in most frogs. Head flat between the eyes ; sides oblique ; facial exca- 

 vation very shallow. Eyes small, contained a little more- than three 

 times in the chord of the commissure and three and one-half in that of 

 the lower jaw, one and one-half diameters from the tip. Tympanum 

 very small (in small specimens quite indistinct), scarcely two-thirds the 

 size of the eye, and distant from it by nearly a diameter. Tongue very 

 large and tleshy, free behind for half its length. Inner nares narrow, 

 elongated in one specimen to aniere slit. Vomerine teeth in two small 

 oblique patches, approacliing behind, but separated by an interval equal 

 to that between the anterior extremity and the inner nares. This ante- 

 rior extremity is on a line with or rather posterior to the hinder border of 

 the inner nares. 



Skin everywhere thick and leathery, minutely pitted; on the sides 

 and posterior part of the body with external surfaces of hind legs, pus- 



" Plate 49, fig. 12. 



