85 



SCAPHIOPUS .—Holbrook. 



Genus Scaphiopus. — Characters. Body short, thick, swollen; head short; 

 minute teeth in the upper jaw and on the palate; a small glandular wart behind 

 the ear, from which a watery fluid can be pressed: posterior extremities short, 

 stout, and muscular; leg shorter than the thigh; a spade-like horny process occupies 

 the position of a sixth toe, and is used by the animal in excavating. 



SCAPHIOPUS SOLITARIUS. 



Plate XII. 



Characters. Back ohve coloured and somewhat warty, with two lines of pale 

 yellow extending from the orbits to the vent; beneath yellowish-white. 



Description. This singular animal approaches nearly to the toad in form. 

 The head is short, the snout obtuse. The upper jaw is greenish-yellow, the lower 

 yellowish-white. The nostrils are very near the extremity of the snout, and placed 

 on a rounded prominence. The eyes are large and very prominent, almost resem- 

 bling warts or excrescences; the pupil is black, the iris golden, veiy brilliant, and 

 subdivided into four portions by two black lines. The tympanum is small, and 

 yellowish-green; behind the tympanum is a small glandular wart, from which minute 

 jets of watery fluid can be pressed. 



