OCR Text |
Show 1880.] PALAEARCTIC AND ^ETHIOPIAN TOADS. 557 less dilated than in B. calamita. The coccyx is a little longer than the skull, without any trace of diapophysis at its base. The males have the first metacarpian or rudiment of thumb very much developed. Geographical Distribution.-The geographical range of B. viridis is a very extensive one. It is the only Bufo inhabiting both Palaearctic and ^Ethiopian Regions. In Europe it is found in the eastern half, from Southern Sweden and Denmark to the extreme south ; it is totally absent from Great Britain, Belgium, Holland, France, and the Spanish peninsula ; in Switzerland it inhabits the region south of the Alps. It extends over entire Temperate Asia, being found eastwards in China and in the Thibet, whence the British Museum has received specimens, which Dr. Gunther has considered, in his great work on the Reptiles of British India, as belonging to B. calamita. Dr. Straueh has communicated to m e the list of the Asiatic localities whence the St.-Petersburg Museum has received specimens ; I think it will be of some interest to reproduce it here: - " Aralykh (Mount Ararat), Bakou, Barnaoul, Bessarabia, Caucasus, Elisabethpol, river Emba, river Hi, Kherson, Khouldsha (western frontiers of China), Kirschinew, Maugyschlak (eastern coast of the Caspian Sea), Nicolajew, Noukouss (Amou Daria), Nowo-Alexan-drowik, Odessa, Soudagh (Crimea), Tiflis, source of Tongensken, Tschabroutsch (Bessarabia), Tschaptschatschi, Tschinas (Turkestan), Tse Balkhasch, Uenowka (Transcaucasia)." I have also seen specimens from Lebanon and Arabia. It extends over the northern coast of Africa, from Egypt, where it is rather common, to Algiers. 4. BUFO MAURITANICUS, Schlegel. Bufo arabicus, Gervais, Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 2, vi. p. 312 (1836). Bufo mauritanicus, Schlegel, Wagn. Reis. Alg. iii. p. 134 (1841). Bufo pantherinus, part., Dumeril & Bibron, Erp. Gen. viii. p. 687 (1841); Gunther, Cat. Batr. Sal. p. 59 (1858). Bufo pantherinus, Guichenot, Expl. Sc. Alg. Zool. v. p. 23(1850); Straueh, M e m . Ac. Sc. St. Petersb. ser. 7, iv. 7, p. 80 (1862). Characters.-Crown of the head without long ridges. Snout short, blunt. Interorbital space broad, concave. Tympanum small, suboval, distinct. Parotoids rather large, elliptic, depressed. Fingers moderate, with two-rowed subarticular tubercles ; first much longer than second. Hind limbs moderate ; no large gland on the calf; a cutaneous fold along the inner edge of the tarsus ; toes moderate, webbed at the base, with two-rowed subarticular tubercles. Upper parts with irregular, depressed, distinctly porous warts; above with large insuliform brown, olive, or reddish spots; beneath whitish, nnspotted. Male with a rather developed subgular vocal sac, |