OCR Text |
Show 1880.] PAL.EARCTIC A N D .ETHIOPIAN TOADS. 549 from B. viridis but also from B. raddei, the Chinese representative of B. calamita. The length of the head equals three fourths or four fifths of its breadth ; the snout is short and blunt, the loreal regions slightly concave, the canthus rostralis indistinct. The nostrils are a little nearer the anterior angles of the eyes than the tip of the snout; and the space between them equals that between one of them and the lip. The eyes are about equally distant from the tip of the snout and the angles of the jaws. The interorbital space is flat and narrow, its breadth being equal to two thirds or four fifths of the upper eyelid's greatest breadth. The tympanum is rather indistinct, generally quite hidden in its posterior half, small and rounded; its diameter does not equal half the greatest diameter of the orbit. The cleft of the mouth extends hardly beyond the posterior corners of the eyes. The tongue is elliptical, moderate ; its length equals twice, or nearly twice, its breadth ; it is somewhat broader in females than in males. The parotoids are small, ovate or subtriangular ; they begin at a short distance from the upper eyelids, and are slightly convergent backwards; their breadth equals two thirds or four fifths of their length, ^which equals the distance between their anterior edge and the nostril or less. The body is about three times as long as the head in females, a little less in males and young. The fore limb is always shorter than the body, especially in females, which have it thinner than males. The fingers are short and rather pointed ; the third is the longest; when laid side by side the first does not extend beyond the second, which is a little longer than the fourth ; the thumb is hardly broader in males than in females; the subarticular tubercles are mostly two-rowed. There is a large flat rounded tubercle in the middle of the hand, and another, smaller and oval, at the base of the thumb. The hind limb is relatively very short; a little longer than head and body in males, it is scarcely more, or even less, in females and young ; if it is carried forwards against the body, the heel reaches to the posterior corner of the eye in males, to the shoulder in females and young. In these the tibia is scarcely longer than the head ; it is rather longer in males ; its upperside is occupied by a large parotoid-like gland, which, however, is sometimes rather indistinct. A cutaneous fold, generally very distinct, extends along more than half the length of the inner margin of the tarsus. The metatarsus is provided with two large tubercles, that at the base of the first toe oval and very prominent, that at the base of the fourth toe round and flat. The toes are depressed and short, especially in females, united at the base by a very short web ; the fourth is one third longer than the third, which is distinctly shorter than the fifth ; the subarticular tubercles are not very prominent, rounded, and mostly in two rows. The warts which are spread on the back are not very prominent, are flattish, and never exhibit any trace of spines ; the largest are distinctly porous to the naked eye ; there are two or three very prominent ones at each angle of the mouth. These warts are little deve- |