American Toad

Bufo americanus Le Conte

Range.—Bufo americanus is the common toad east of the Rocky Mountains from Mexico to the Great Bear Lake. It shares the Southern States with Bufo lentiginosus, and southern New England and New York with Bufo fowleri. The species varies considerably in different parts of its range, the variation showing itself in intensity of markings, prominence and arrangement of the cranial crests, and in size. (Bufo copei Henshaw and Yarrow (James Bay, type locality) seems to be a small, prominently spotted Bufo americanus, judging from the type specimens in the National Museum. Bufo aduncus Cope may possibly be Bufo americanus. The type specimen is lost, and the species has not been rediscovered.)

1. Colour: Extremely variable; usually yellow-brown, light or dark in shade, with or without patches and bands of lighter colour. A light vertebral stripe may be present. There may be much bright red and yellow on the warts. There are likely to be four irregular spots of dark rich colouring along each side of the vertebral line. Under parts light, with few or many spots. (See Fig.52.) Throat of male, black. Female much brighter and more variegated in colour than male. (Fig. 47.) (For colouration, see Colour Plate III.)

2. Measurements: Male 2 1/2 to 3 inches in length; female much larger. Head large; its length contained 4 to 4 1/2 times in total length. Legs medium in length-length of leg to heel equal to length of body forward to eye.

3. Structure: Skin conspicuously warty. Parotoid glands medium in size, more or less reniform in shape; situated just back of eye. Straight, narrow, diverging bony ridges extend back ward between the eyes; each meets at right angles a second bony ridge extending back of eyes to a point above ears. The first ridge extends a little beyond the point of meeting with the second. There is little or no evidence of a ridge extending between the end of the second ridge and the parotoid gland. (See Fig.48.) Inner sole tubercle of foot conspicuous because of size and black colour. Outer tubercle smaller.

It is the first of May, late in the afternoon. We stand at the edge of a pond, under a maple brilliant with its fringes of red keys. A marshy place at our left is yellow with "cowslips." Farther back from the water are the broad spreading leaves of the skunk cabbage and the unrolling fronds of the cinnamon fern. Everywhere about the margin of the pond the green arrowhead leaves are just thrusting their pointed ends above the water; the new red leaves of the yellow pond-llies are resting on the surface or struggling up to it.

Suddenly out in the centre of the pond hundreds of small fish leap from the water to escape some enemy below, and drop back, making overlapping circles of motion that widen and spread until all is placid again. There is no silence; all is life. The red wings are indulging in a lively conversation in the marsh near at hand. The ever-present green frogs are croaking from the ooze and immersed brown leaves just in front of us. They are so near that we can see their yellow throats and green sides expand again and again as the explosive calls are repeated.

What is the new sound? Very near at hand, there is a sweet tremulous call that continues for several seconds, then stops abruptly. There it is again, but from another direction, and slightly different in pitch. Now it comes from all quarters--many voices answering and blending into harmony.

It is not difficult to locate the singers. They are toads, with throats distended into conspicuous light-coloured sacs astonishingly larger than their heads. They are quite unconscious of our presence as they sit erect in shallow water, showing their bright eyes and their enlarged throats.

The sounds are of such quality that they influence us to loiter. We sit down on the dry exposed roots of the maple to watch, and to listen to these creatures expressing the glad life within them. The simplicity and quiet joyousness of it all take hold upon us.