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Fowler's Toad
Colour.—General colour light or dark grey (or dull brown), which may be greenish or yellowish in tone, very rarely reddish. Sometimes dark or dingy and unspotted; more often spotted and striped with dull brown or black. A prominent light vertebral streak and spots margined with light. Spots unusually distinct, and seldom deviating from a typical arrangement. This arrangement is as follows: six pairs along the vertebral streak--first pair, elongated spots placed obliquely on the eyelids and top of the head; second pair, rounded and small, between the anterior ends of the parotoids; third pair, greatly elongated, more or less pear-shaped, situated on the anterior part of the back; fourth, fifth, and sixth pairs irregular, the last often obscure. There is an irregular band of light colour on the side bounded below by dark. Between the anterior part of the eye and the jaw there is a dark band, and back of this, extending from the eye and lower border of the parotoid, there are three or four dark bands, more or less parallel to this one. The warts situated on the dark spots are usually lighter or brighter than the spots. Iris bright metallic yellow, with tracery of black veining. Throat of male black. Throat of female light, with perhaps a few spots on the jaw. Underparts light, unspotted. There may be much yellow reticulated with black on the posterior lower sides and on the anterior and posterior faces of the femur.
Measurements.—Size medium, i. e. male 2 1/2 inches, female slightly larger. Head relatively short; length of head contained in total length about four times. Legs relatively long, i. e. length of leg to heel equals length of body forward to some point anterior to the eye in the female and to the muzzle or beyond in the male. Tibia longer than femur.
Structure.—Skin everywhere finely warty on the upper parts. Groups of somewhat larger warts on the dark spots of the back. Underparts granulated. Parotoids long, narrow, parallel ovals. The top of the head may be higher than the neck region behind. The two bony crests of the top of the head are variable in their characteristics. They are usually near each other, considerably elevated, parallel, and grown together at their posterior ends. Conspicuous ridges behind the eyes meet these parallel ridges at right angles. Ear a vertical oval, two-thirds the size of the eye. The muzzle projects beyond the upper lip. The nostrils, which open upward, are situated half-way between the eye and the jaw on a vertical line with the upper lip. Fingers slender, prominent tubercles under finger-joints; one large palm tubercle; order of lengths of fingers from the shortest to the longest, second, fourth, first, third. Toes slender; web deeply indented; inner sole tubercle well developed; outer sole tubercle small.
Range.—Danvers, Woods Hole, and Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts. Common throughout Rhode Island. Probably common in other parts of Massachusetts, and perhaps in still other New England States. (G. M. Allen describes the song of the Fowler's toad heard in New Hampshire, but attributes this song to the American toad. "Notes on the Reptiles and Batrachians of Intervale, N. H." Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 29: 63-75.) Specimens are in the American Museum of Natural History, in a collection representing the Batrachia of the vicinity of New York City.
Colour.—Brown, with medium-sized dark spots on each side of a light vertebral streak. The tubercles set in the spots are reddish in colour. There are brown spots on the upper lip, below the ear and between the parotoid gland and shoulder. An irregular brown band extends backward along the side. Sides below this band reticulated with dark. Legs (even the feet) banded with dark. Posterior surface of the femur coarsely reticulated with dark. Underparts (except the throat) spotted.
Measurements.—Length 2 1/2 inches. Length of head (to end of cranial crests) enters the total length about 4 1/2 times. Length of leg to heel equals the length of the body forward to the eye.
Structure.—Skin tubercular; tubercles small but prominent, often set in rows on the back and tibia. Smaller granulations of the skin conspicuous everywhere, especially on the sides. Parotoid narrow, oval. Head rounded; muzzle vertical in front; nostrils terminal. Ear a vertical oval, two-thirds the diameter of the eye. Cranial crests as follows: Parallel ridges between the eyes, elongated and united behind in a transverse ridge above the nape. These ridges of the top of the head turn outward at their posterior ends, as if to form ridges back of the eyes to the ears, but extend only a short distance, and end abruptly. Foot webbed extensively, but webs deeply indented. Inner sole tubercle unusually large, outer small; both of these tubercles have free cutting edges.