1925] 
Storer: A Synopsis of the Amphibia of California 
245 
in November and March. Occupying as it does, permanent bodies 
of water, there is no need to delay spawning operations to a late date 
in the spring, as is the case with the stream frog ( Rana boylii). 
Temperature seems to have little to do with the initiation of spawn- 
ing activities, as there is no conspicuous alteration in temperature 
coincident with egg deposition so far as data available to the author 
indicate. The only correlation which has occurred to the writer is 
that of maximum filling of ponds, a feature upon which, unfortu- 
nately, no measurements are available. In the one pond (Thornhill) 
which has been under observation for the life-history of draytonii, the 
time of egg deposition corresponds roughly with that of high water. 
The occurrence of spawning in November at Sierra Madre in a month 
of unusually heavy rainfall is a further indication that the filling of 
the ponds may be an important factor. Eggs deposited at the highest 
stage of the pond are then unlikely to be submerged (and covered with 
pond vegetation), but are, on the other hand, constantly exposed to 
the heat of the sun and thus develop at a maximum rate. Subsequent 
to hatching, the larvae of draytomii inhabit the shallow water adjacent 
to the main pond, so long as such shallows are inundated. The quick 
growths of grass or aquatic vegetation which occur in such places 
soon provide shelter for the tadpoles, and the more rapid warming of 
the shallow layer of water each day hastens growth of the diatoms and 
green algae upon which the tadpoles feed. Metamorphosis is evidently 
accomplished by late spring to midsummer (May- July), giving the 
young animals whose food requirements have changed from vegetable 
to animal material an opportunity to forage and grow to somewhat 
larger size in preparation for tiding over the winter season when food 
is scarce. 
Rana boylii boylii Baird. California Yellow-legged Prog 
(Pi. 3, fig. 6; pi. 12, fig. 34; pi. 16, figs. 49 [upper right], 50; 
text figs. A A, II, PP) 
Rana boylii Baird (1854, p. 62). Original description, type from [Eldorado 
County] California. 
Rana boylii, Baird (1859b, p. 12). 
Rana Boylii, Cooper (1868, p. 485). Range. 
Rana pretiosa, Yarrow and Henshaw (1878, p. 210), part. Locality records. 
Rana pretiosa, Yarrow (1883, pp. 25, 186), part. Locality record. 
Rana pachy derma Cope (1883, pp. 25-26). Type locality, U. S. Fish 
Hatchery, McCloud River, Shasta County, California. 
Rana boylii, Cope (1889, pp. 444—447, text fig. 115). General account. 
Rana boylii, Boulenger (1892, p. 453). 
Rana boylii, Stejneger (1893, pp. 226-227). Critical; locality records. 
