160 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 27 
this reflex is manifest. With the drying up of the pools in which 
the young toads have passed their larval existence, they would quickly 
be killed by the desiccating influence of the air; by 'digging in’ they 
are able to protect themselves against this calamity. 
Larvae of Scaphiopus hammondii (considering the species in its 
broadest sense) have been reported from a number of localities in 
the western states, though the exact seasonal history has never been 
followed through in any one place nor have the eggs been described 
heretofore. 
Cope (1883, p. 14) says that in Santa Fe, New Mexico, it was 
"abundant in July and August when it deposits its eggs in the pools 
of rainwater. It is very noisy at such times, and the open lots in the 
city of Santa Fe resound with its cries. They are much like those of 
the Scaphiopus holbrookii.” At Market Lake, Fremont County, 
Idaho, on August 11, 1876, Cope (1889, p. 308) found "numerous fat 
larvae of Spea bombifrons [= Scaphiopus hammondii ] occupying 
small spaces which they had cleared, quite out of reach of the water. 
Their limbs were nearly full grown, while their tails had suffered no 
absorption, and their jaws were toothless and cartilaginous; some 
quite larval in form, others with wider gape. They were engaged in 
eating the grasshoppers [Caloptenus spretus, which were present in 
abundance] and I detected several specimens with the entire insects 
in their mouths. In some instances the grasshoppers’ bodies were too 
large and projected from their mouths. These precocious larvae were 
evidently air-breathers, and hopped about, presenting a curious 
appearance as they dragged their large tails after them. ’ ’ At Pyra- 
mid Lake, Nevada, in July, 1882, Cope (1883, p. 18) found adults in 
a pond near the lake shore. He states that the adults were very noisy. 
The same author found the species on the plains east of Fort Benton, 
Montana (in 1876 or 1882?). Spawning had occurred in water from 
summer rains which had accumulated in wagon ruts, and the larvae 
had transformed by August 20 (Cope, 1889, p. 307). Taylor (1912, 
pp. 345-346) found many larvae in various stages of development in 
pools on marshy ground at Quinn River Crossing, Humboldt County, 
Nevada, on June 7, 1909. At Owens Lake, Inyo County, California, 
adolescents were collected on May 15 and 18, 1891 (Stejneger, 1893, 
p. 222). Dickerson (1906, p. 60) says that "young specimens were 
obtained from San Diego, California, in early April. They measure 
three-fourths inches long, having a blackish skin already covered with 
reddish warts, and feet that show the black horny spade well devel- 
