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California Toad — Part 2
When hunting its insect food, this toad often walks instead of hopping. We should expect this habit, because of the unwieldy size of the body and the shortness of the legs. When frightened and trying to escape an enemy, it flattens its body and creeps along stealthily and alertly. In fact, of all the strong, alert toads of North America, this is perhaps the strongest and most alert. Nothing seems to exhaust or cool its ardour, not even physical injury, if it once becomes alarmed and tries to escape. When this toad is active and excited, its skin constantly sends out a secretion, so that it looks and feels slimy. This secretion has a peculiar oily odour, not especially disagreeable.
It is much dependent on being under the protection of some cover, even in high temperatures. It makes a shallow burrow for the day and a deeper one for the winter months.
After having been deprived of water for some time, this toad shows interesting movements, aimed at getting all parts of the absorbing skin wet. He squats in shallow water, flattening the body as much as possible. He moves about slowly, keeping the body depressed, then puts the water on the top of his head by means of his hands, and wets his back with his feet. These movements are always unexpected and interesting.
The female is apparently voiceless; the male gives rapidly a series of high-pitched notes, like the harsh sounds produced by a squawking toy doll.
Bufo halophilus has a subspecies representing it at the north; namely, Bufo halophilus columbiensis (Bufo microscaphus Cope) with the Columbia River the type locality.
Much study needs to be done on the California toads. One of the puzzling points concerning Bufo halophilus is the marked difference between living specimens from southern California (San Diego) and those from the type locality (near San Francisco). The same discrepancy is observable in the specimens of the National Museum. The Southern toads have a rougher skin, a more extended muzzle, a smaller ear as well as parotoid, a larger and more extended inner sole tubercle, and a proportion of head and body one to four and a half instead of one to four. A study of the life history and habits of this Southern toad would settle at once the question of its relation to the Northern Bufo halophilus. (See Figs. 127 to 130 and compare with Figs. 121 to 126.)
This toad, the common toad of Oregon and Washington, has a representative in the southern part of the Pacific Slope, Bufo boreas nelsoni Stejneger. The type specimen was found in 1891 at Oasis Valley, Nevada. It is similar to Bufo boreas, except that the skin is smoother between the warts, the toad has a longer, more pointed muzzle, and the longer legs have a less-indented web and a smoother sole. Bufo b. nelsoni is found east of the Sierras, in the high altitudes of southeastern California and western Nevada.
THE COMMON TREE FROG. [Hyla versicolor LeConte.] Any individual of this species passes through the color changes indicated. The change from unspotted dark (not shown on plate) to plain white or green is always through an intermediate spotted phase. The frog of the upper three figures is from Staten Island, N. Y.; the plain green one below from White Bear Lake, Minn.; the other figures represent a frog from Providence, R. I.
FAMILY IV. HYLIDAE: THE TREE FROGS(Refer to pp. 7, 9 and 46.)