BATRACHIANS AND REPTILES OF OHIO. 117 



i. Thoracic region capable of expansion by virtue of the 

 fact that the cartilage connecting the two clavicles and coracoids 

 in the median line is double, the two parts sliding on each 

 other. — Arcifera. 



2. Thorax not capable of expansion because the cartilage 

 is single and immovable. — Firmisternia. 



The Arcifera embraces the tree- toads and toads ; the Tirmi- 

 sternia, the frogs. 



Tribe : Arcifera. 



Family : Bufonidae. 



Bufo lentiginosus americanus (Le C). Brownish to olive, vertebral 

 line yellowish. Adults with skin covered with warts of varying size. Head 

 45^ times in total length of body. Below yellowish. Bony ridges above and 

 behind eye ; eye small. Length 3^ inches. 



This is the common toad in Ohio. It is extremely variable, 

 both in point of structure and color. At Cedar Point, Sandusky, 

 Ohio, the majority of the toads found are light grey in color, 

 whereas on the mainland around Sandusky, where a more humid 

 condition obtains, a dark brown color is prevalent among the 

 toads. A reddish hue is sometimes met with in the toads on the 

 bleak hills in southern and south-eastern Ohio. Thus at Nelson- 

 ville the writer obtained several brick-red specimens. In each 

 case the color must have been assumed after the adult condition 

 had been reached since the young were of a uniform brownish or 

 olive color. The specimen labeled Bufo lentiginosus lentiginosus 

 Shaw, in the O. S. U. Zoological Museum from Columbus and 

 Knox Co., is referable to the sub-species americanus. (Morse, 

 'oi, May.) 



Toads lay their eggs as soon as the warmer weather of spring 

 begins. The eggs are laid in strings which are wrapped around 

 water weeds and debris in general in small running streams. The 

 eggs are smaller than those of the frogs, the latter being laid in 

 mulberry-like masses, by which the two may be distinguished 



Wilcox ('91) records a specimen taken on November 29th, 

 while another was captured January 10th. These are extreme 

 dates as toads generally appear for the first time about April 1st, 

 and begin to hibernate in October. 



