No. 515] THE AMERICAN TOAD 647 



to me as I waded out or made a disturbance in the water. 

 All the females on the night of the twenty-seventh and 

 succeeding nights were removed from the pond to the 

 laboratory. 



To sum up my observations on this pond we find : first, 

 that the males are the first to reach the water; second, 

 that there were two waves of spawning activity; third, 

 that not less than ninety-two females visited this pond; 

 fourth, that on an average 88.8 per cent, of the toads in 

 the water at any given time during the spawning season 

 were males. 



Of eighty-two taken at random from the streets after 

 the breeding season 60.8 per cent, were females. Kelli- 

 cott gives the proportion of males to females of those 

 collected along Lake Erie, Ohio, as 175:266; King for 

 toads near Bryn Mawr, Pa., 713:823; i. e., 39.7 per cent. 

 46.5 per cent., respectively, were males. 



The females leave the water as soon as they spawn 

 (from six to eighteen hours after reaching the pond). 

 It is probable that the males return to the ponds night 

 after night, which accounts for their apparent excess in 

 numbers during the spawning season. 



Observations were made on five ponds, and it was 

 found that the periods of maximum spawning were not 

 simultaneous in all. In no. 1 and no. 2, 3 the spawning 

 period reached its maximum on the nights of April 29 

 and 30 ; in no. 3, 4 May 1 and 2 ; in no. 4, 5 May 14 and 15 ; 

 in no. 5, 6 May 18 and 19. 



is a permanent pond of about thirty yards in diameter with a depth of three 



some growing far out into the water. The south side has its growth of flags 

 ana water grasses. To the south and west is an open field, while bui ings 



