156 MARINE TOAD. 



the toes of the hmd feet are very slightly connected 

 at their base by a small approach towards a web. 

 Seba calls this species a Marine American Frog, 

 and observes, that it seems calculated for living 

 both by land and sea ; but gives no particular ac- 

 count of its native place. Linnaeus appears to 

 have described it merely from Seba's figure, and 

 Mr. Schneider, in his Hist or la Amphihiorum, cen- 

 sures both the Linn'ceah and Laurentian specific 

 characters, as depending on a circumstance com- 

 mon to all Toads, viz. the tuberous or prominent 

 parotids ; but since, as before observed, those parts 

 are remarkably conspicuous in the present animal, 

 there seems to be no good reason wh}^ they should 

 not be particularized in the specific character*. 

 As to the tubercles at the extremity of the body, 

 they are evidently, as Mr. Schneider has well ob- 

 served, entirely owing to the natural folding of 

 the skin in that part, when the animal is placed 

 in the attitude represented by Seba ; and disap- 

 pear when the legs are placed in a different di- 

 rection. 



Specimens of this animal, examined by Mr. 

 Schneider, appeared to agree in every respect with 

 Seba's figure, except in not having the tips of the 

 toes visibly orbiculated. Mr. Schneider also speaks 

 of a specimen of double the usual size, which he 



- * I must farther observe, that I have not pursued Mr. Schnei- 

 der's arrangement in the disposition of this genus ; but have placed 

 some animals among the toads, which he would rank among the 

 frogs, and vice versa. 



