156 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 27 
found the species in only three localities. Near Banning, Riverside 
County, on the night of March 24, the notes of one or two individuals 
of this species were heard coming from a pool of water beside a rail- 
road embankment. This was well after dark (9:15 p.m.) on a clear 
cold night; there had been no rain for some time previously. The 
notes were followed up but the surface of the pond was found to be 
covered with a dense stand of dead weeds and the animals could not 
be seen. At Altadena, Los Angeles County, a cement-lined reservoir 
was visited at about 8 o’clock on the night of April 6. Several males 
were croaking vigorously but they were too far out in the pool to be 
seen or captured. There had been heavy rains intermittently from 
March 31 to April 5. When this pool was visited again on April 8, 
no spadefoots could be heard. Near Santa Maria, Santa Barbara 
County, spadefoots were found in some numbers on the night of 
April 10 ; there had been heavy rain during the night of April 9. No 
animals were to be heard or seen in the same pools on the night of 
April 14. One spadefoot was heard in another location near Santa 
Maria on the night of the fourteenth. 
Eggs of Scaphiopus hammondii were found in some rain pools 
about 3 miles southwest of Santa Maria on the afternoon of April 10, 
1923. Some shallow depressions in a pasture and the gutter at the 
side of a country road held water accumulated from the recent rains 
(April 1 to 9). In no place was the depth of the water greater than 
500 millimeters and for the most part it was less than 150 millimeters. 
In these pools were many egg masses, all of about the same advanced 
stage of embryonic development, and all attached to vertical stems 
of grasses and other plants in the water. All were attached below the 
surface at depths of from 25 to 100 millimeters (estimated). No mass 
was found at the surface of the water. In some cases a spiral dispo- 
sition was evident, suggesting that the spadefoots had circled the stem 
when the eggs were being extruded. In other masses there was no 
indication of spiral arrangement. 
Macroscopically the eggs are somewhat like those of a true frog 
( Rana ) and somewhat like those of the Pacific Tree-toad ( Hyla 
regilla ) . There appears to be but a single gelatinous envelope though 
actually there are two, the inner one being thin and close around the 
vitelline capsule. There is no general outer covering as on the eggs 
of Hyla regilla and the mass has the outline of a cluster of grapes 
(see pi. 10, fig. 29; text fig. W). When lifted out of the water the 
mass naturally droops or lengthens out somewhat, but not so much as 
an egg mass of Hyla regilla. 
