196 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 27 
Bufo punctatus was ascribed to California in 1859 by Heermann 
(1859, p. 24) on the basis of material collected by Mollhausen. 
Stejneger (1890, p. 117), however, indicates that this material prob- 
ably pertained to the upper Colorado River in Arizona. The first 
definite record for punctatus in California is that by Stejneger (1893, 
p. 219) in the report of the Death Valley Expedition of 1891. The 
species has since been found to inhabit certain canons on the east slope 
of the mountains in San Diego County at Vallecito, and on the north 
slope of the Santa Rosa Mountains in Riverside County ( Grrinnell 
and Camp, 1917, p. 144). Camp (1916a, p. 512) found this species 
in a canon in the Turtle Mountains near Blythe Junction, San Ber- 
nardino County, and Stejneger (1893, p. 219) has recorded it from 
Furnace Creek in Death Valley and Cottonwood Canon in the Pana- 
mint Mountains in Inyo County. The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology 
has a young specimen (no. 1841) from the Colorado River 20 miles 
above Picacho, on the California side. 
The altitudinal range of the species is nearly 7000 feet. In Colo- 
rado it was found at an altitude of about 6500 feet, while in Death 
Valley it lives 200 feet or more below sea level. 
Van Denburgh (1924, p. 195) lists this species as from Dog Spring 
and Dog Mountains, Hidalgo County, New Mexico, but I find no 
county of this name in that state. There is an Hidalgo County on 
the border .close to Fort Ringgold in Texas. 
Life-history. — Bufo punctatus is strictly a desert species, inhabit- 
ing practically the entire extent of the desert area in the southwestern 
United States and northern Mexico. Its occurrence is interrupted, 
the species being restricted to canons where water is present in the 
limited amount necessary for its existence. The advent of irrigating 
systems developed since the country has been settled by Caucasians 
has probably been responsible for slight local increases in numbers, 
but no general increase in range can be attributed to this source. 
The immediate habitat of the species is indicated by the following. 
Four specimens (nos. 253-256, Mus. Vert. Zool.) collected at Carrizo 
Creek, Riverside County, California, in the northern part of the 
Santa Rosa Mountains, about 12 miles southwest of Indio were found 
in a dry wash where an intermittent stream appeared above the 
surface of the ground for a short distance. Zonally the region is inter- 
mediate between arid Upper and Lower Sonoran, with a leaning 
toward the latter. Desert willow, a species of true willow, and arrow- 
weed were conspicuous plants found there. The toads remained in 
