PELOBATES. 203 



gradually decrease iu length,— the fourth, if at all 

 present, being extremely short. On the lower lip we 

 see likewise a short outer series, followed by three or 

 four much longer ones, all of which, with the occa- 

 sional exception of the first, are interrupted in the 

 middle, and may be more or less broken up on the 

 sides. The series of labial teeth may therefore be 

 formulated as f or -f . Small isolated teeth may also 

 be scattered on the papillae at the angles of the 

 mouth. 



I have not been able to distinguish lines of cryjDts 

 beyond the two series which run from the end of the 

 snout to the upper border of the eyes, passing be- 

 tween the nostrils. I am therefore unable to judge 

 whether the dorsal lines have been correctly figured 

 by Lessona, who rightly regards the figure given by 

 Cornalia as fanciful. 



The advanced tadpole is brown or olive-brown above, 

 with or without small darker spots, greyish-white or 

 bluish beneath ; sides with roundish whitish or pale 

 golden spots; tail pale brown, with small grey and 

 whitish spots. 



The body usually reaches at least the size of a 

 pigeon's egg, but not unfrequently exceeds that size. 

 The largest specimen in the British Museum, from 

 Prague, measures 126 mm., body 38, width of body 

 25, tail 87, depth of tail 27. The largest specimen on 

 record is one preserved in the Berlin Museum, obtained 

 in December, 1867, on the Jungfernheide, near Berlin, 

 and which measures 175 mm. 



Habitat. — The range of this species is an extensive 

 but broken one, its occurrence being obviously depen- 

 dent on the nature of the soil, and restricted to the 

 plain, the highest elevation at which it has yet been 

 recorded being 1400 feet (Val di Susa, Piedmont). P. 

 fuscus also appears to avoid competition with its con- 

 gener P. cuUripes ; the limit of the range of the two 

 closely meet without anywhere overlapping. It in- 

 habits the north-east and east of France, from Flanders 



