AMERICAN TOAD. 703. 
Bufo musicus, et americanus, HARLAN, DUMERIL and BIBRON. 
Bufo fowleri, PUTNAM. 
Bufo cognaius, SAY. 
Bufo froniosus, CoPE. 
General cclor above cinerous to dark slate, speckled with whitish-gray and brown; 
beneath yellowish or dirty white; gular region and under side of legs darker; head 
small; nostrils vertical, smaller and closer together than the inner nares; eyes moder- 
ate; pupii black; irides golden; tympanum small, its color rendering it not very 
apparent ; feet each with two plantar tubercles, the one large and the other small ; hind 
legs obscurely barred with darker; above granulate or speckled over with small warts; 
forehead with two long ridges swollen behind; very variable, owing to age, season, 
sex, and will of the animal. Length, 34 inches; hind limb, 34 inches; fore limb, 14 
inches; breadth of head, 14 inches; depth of head, 3 inch; head to axilla, 14 inches. 
The typical Bufo lentiginosus is extralimital, having its habitat South Carolina, Flor- 
ida, Alabama, Mississippi; but our fauna includes var. americanus, LeConte, which dif- 
fers from the above by having the bony ridges moderate and not much swollen behind ; 
the small warts upon the back replaced by much larger ones, and a yellowish vertebral 
line extending from the occipital region backwards. 
Habitat, Labrador, Nova Scotia, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
New York, Virginia, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, Kansas, Dakotah, 
‘(Great Bear Lake.” 
The American Toad, including its varieties, is the analogue of 
Bufo vulgaris of the old world, and, like that species, has a remarkably 
wide distribution, ranging from the Esquimaux River and Okak, Labra- 
dor, to Florida and Texas and Mexico, and north to Dakotah and Lake 
Winnipeg; and Gunther in his catalogue mentions a specimen sent by 
Sir J. Richardson from the Great Bear Lake. In brief, this genus ap- 
pears to be almost world wide, with the exception of Australia, in their 
distribution, anda striking fact is that the Japanese specimens of Bufo 
vulgaris approach more nearly to the American Toad than do the Euro- 
pean. They also attain a large size in elevated regions. 
Our toad during the day remains in concealment, crouched in cavities 
under stones, dead or decaying trees, or stumps, and is sometimes in 
cellars, or drowned in wells. They have been found in the latter situa- 
tion buried in the mud ai the bottom, but still alive, and are supposed 
to have been interred for some time. They are mild and timid animals, 
which oviposit in May, and begin to disappear the last of August or fore 
part of September. Like the frogs, they repair to ponds and hybernate 
in mud, where they have been found a foot below the surface. Bell 
states that they eat their skin as soon as cast, and, in Massachusetts, Allen 
found frogs and toads under stones in an unfrozen spring in February. 
Mr, W. K. Higley, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, informs me that he has 
seen the common American Toad, in April, repair in great numbers to 
