1925] Storer : A Synopsis of the Amphibia of California 155 
same neighborhood, he found two males in a reservoir into which a 
stream of water was running; one was clasping the other and the 
latter was croaking vigorously. The writer has heard the voice of 
the Spadefoot on but three occasions, as noted below. Naturalists who 
are interested in learning more about the spadefoot should go abroad 
just after heavy rain storms in the late spring months as it is then 
that the voice of the animal is most likely to be heard. 
The notes of the male Western Spadefoot during the breeding 
season are as loud or louder than those of any of our other native 
Salientia. They carry well, so that, in open country, it is possible to 
hear them when the listener is at a distance of half a mile or more 
from the animals. The individual note is a low-toned rather prolonged 
tirr-r-r-r. One listener compared the note to the noise made by strok- 
ing a rosined string attached to an empty tin can; another to the 
sound produced by a wooden ball falling and bouncing rapidly on a 
light wooden table. The note has a ventriloquial quality, at least to 
human ears, and when a person is searching for one of the toads he 
is apt to have considerable difficulty in determining the exact location 
of the performer. The female Spadefoot gives only a few muffled 
notes, much lower than those of the male. 
In the pools near Santa Maria, described below, a dozen or more 
Western Spadefoots were watched and listened to at about 9 o’clock 
on the night of April 10, 1923. Each of the male toads was distant 
from his nearest neighbor by a meter or more. All were in the water, 
sprawled out, with all four legs widely extended and their bodies float- 
ing at the surface. The vocal pouch in this species occupies the space 
under the chin, and when inflated is directed forward, with a slight 
median constriction (see pi. 10, fig. 28). When the males are on the 
water the vocal pouch is kept partially distended and at the instant 
the note is produced the pouch swells far forward. Each note lasts 
about half a second and when the animals are in full chorus the inter- 
vals between successive notes from one toad are about two seconds in 
duration. Different individuals croak at different times and in slightly 
different keys so that the effect of the ‘chorus,’ if such it may be 
called, is quite varied. Males when grasped across the back between 
the thumb and forefinger of a person’s hand give their notes in rapid 
succession. 
The present writer made a special search for material bearing on 
the life-history of Scaphiopus hammondii at various places in central 
and southern California during March and early April of 1923, but 
