432 
SPANISH-TOWN. 
great nuisance. I suggest to our savanna farmers, 
who have convenient duck-ponds, like my young 
friend Mr. Thompson, of Tredegar Park, who com- 
plained to me of their depredations, that Marsh 
Tortoises should he kept where these plaguy Anouras 
resort. As they are carnivorous, and, in countries 
where frogs are common, prey specially upon frogs, 
as well as small fishes, and as their address in swim- 
ming and their prompt movement enable them to 
pursue their prey with avidity, the Emys or Marsh 
Tortoise seems the best counterpoise to their in- 
crease. Even if these should prove equally annoying 
to the ducklings, their voiceless existence renders 
them a more endurable nuisance. The frogs attack 
the feet of the ducklings, and lacerate them, and 
bite olf their toes while swimming. Our farmers will 
be obliged to reduce to captivity some of our large 
Herons, to preserve their natatorial poultry from 
this pest.” 
The two specimens alluded to in these notes Mr. Hill 
kindly transmitted to me. They proved to be that 
enormous South American Toad described and figured 
under so many titles, the Rana marina of Seba and 
Linn., the Bufo agua of Latreille, Daudin, and Du- 
meril. It varies exceedingly in form, proportions, 
and colours : Spix, in his great work on Brazil, 
has described and figured no fewer than eight forms, 
to each of which he assigns specific names, but all of 
which MM. Hum. and Bibr. consider as belonging 
to the present species. In its greatest development 
it is the most gigantic of all the Anourous Batrachia. 
The whole coasts of intertropical America produce it. 
