OCR Text |
Show 564 M. G. A. BOULENGER ON THE [NOV. 16, B. maculatus, the term cinereus having been applied to our common toad by Schneider and Daudin. This species is described in Seetzen's ' Voyage in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt,' and named Rana mosaica. It is easy to recognize it by the not very technical description of Seetzen. W e see that the tympanum is oval, the first finger longer than the second, the throat blackish, the latter character being evidently only applicable to males. If we consider that Egypt is inhabited by only two species oiBufo (B. regularis and B. viridis), and that the latter never exhibits a blackish throat, that its tympanum is round, and not oval, and that the disproportion between the thumb and the index is too slight to have been noticed by a naturalist such as Seetzen, we cannot doubt that the identification of R. mosaica and B. regularis is correct. Desirous, however, to have further information on this subject, I wrote to Prof. Peters, in Berlin, who has answered me that Seetzen's collection has not been preserved. Dr. Gunther, in his ' Catalogue of Batrachia Salientia,' 1858, admits two African species besides B. tuberosus, viz. B. pantherinus and B. guineensis. The former corresponds to B. mauritanicus and B. regularis typus and var. B, the latter to B. regularis var. A. M. Lataste has, through the kindness of Prof. Schlegel and Dr. Steindachner, examined the types of B. pantherinus, Boie MS., B. guineensis, Schlegel MS., and B. nubicus, Fitzinger, MS., and has found them identical with B. regularis typus. I have not employed for this species the name of pantherinus, because this M S . name, though first intended for it by Boie, has been applied to two or more very distinct species, and would therefore be a source of confusion. 6. BUFO ANGUSTICEPS, Smith. Bufo pantherinus, part., Dumeril and Bibron, Erp. Gen. viii. p. 687(1841). Bufo angusticeps, Smith, 111. Zool. S. Afr. pl. 69. f. 1 (1849); Gunther, Cat. Batr. Sal. p. 59 (1858). Bufo gariepensis, Smith, I. c. pl. 69. f. 2. Characters.-Crown of the head without bony ridges. Snout short, blunt. Interorbital space rather narrow. Tympanum very small, round, distinct. Parotoids generally small, elliptic or sub-oval, depressed. Fingers short, with single or two-rowed subarticular tubercles; first not extending beyond second. Hind limbs short; no parotoid-like gland on the calf; cutaneous fold on the inner edge of the tarsus more or less distinct, or entirely absent; toes short, webbed at the base, with single or two-rowed subarticular tubercles. Upper parts with irregular, depressed, distinctly porous warts. Brown or olive, spotted or marbled above; generally a yellowish vertebral line; beneath whitish, generally immaculate. Male with a little-developed subgular vocal sac. |