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Narrow-mouthed Toad
- Colour
- General colour may be black, brown, or grey. Usually the head and two oblique bands extending from the eyes to the posterior part of the body are bright brown (red or orange in tone). These brown bands are bordered with black above. The space on the back between these bands (narrow in front, broad posteriorly) is grey or dull brown, speckled with black. Sides of head, neck and body grey, finely spotted with black. Sides of head, neck and body grey, finely spotted with black. Arms and legs bright brown. Leg crossed by two closely-placed narrow black bands, or spotted irregularly with black. Underparts lighter than sides, although completely sprinkled with small black spots. Throat of male black.
- Measurements
- Very small, i.e. length of male 1 to 1 1/4 inches; female somewhat larger. Legs short, tibia slightly longer than femur. Length of leg to heel not exceeding length of body forward to arm insertion.
- Structure
- Body broad, head pointed, obtuse at the end of the muzzle and extremely small. The upper jaw projects over the lower. The angles of the jaw are under the posterior part of the eye. Skin relatively smooth, or with minute tubercles distributed evenly over head, back, and legs. A fold of skin extends across the head back of the eyes. Eyes small and bead-like. Ear not visible. Arms slender; legs stout. Toes slender, not webbed. Fourth toe conspicuously longer than the others. Inner sole tubercle small; outer lacking. Tubercles under toe and finger-joints relatively conspicuous.
- Range
- South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida westward to western Texas, northward into Missouri and southern Illinois. (Micanopy, Clarcona, Lake Jessup, Little Sarasota Bay, Fla.; Charleston, S. C.; Raleigh, N. C.; Columbus and Riceborough, Ga.; New Madrid, Mo.; Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, Helotes, Fort Concho, and Hitchcock, Tex)
Members of the Salientia, popularly called frogs and toads, look remarkably alike; so much alike, that it requires fine discrimination to distinguish them one from another. Engystoma carolinense looks very different from the typical frog or toad. Its tiny head with dark bead-like eyes seems wholly out of proportion to its relatively large, squat body. At first sight the creature is grotesque. It seems especially so when we take it up in our hands and find that the loose skin of the shoulders and body back of the head-fold pushes forward far over the head, making the creature resemble a turtle for the moment.
Engystoma is very alert and active, and although its legs are short, it is very difficult to catch. It proceeds by short jumps, given in surprisingly rapid succession.
It has been heard in September calling from ditches bordering the streets of Houston and San Antonio, Texas. (Bulletin 20, U. S. Nat. Museum. "On the Zoological Position of Texas." E. D. Cope, 1880.) It has been found under old logs and under leaves in moist places in Florida. (Notes on Reptiles and Batrachians Collected in Florida in 1892 and 1893. E. Loennberg. Proc. Nat. Museum, Vol. XVII. Also N. A. Herpetology, Holbrook.) At Raleigh, North Carolina, it begins the breeding season in May and continues it until August. (C. S. Brimley, Raleigh, N. C., 1905.) During this time it is found in pools of stagnant water, temporary or otherwise. It floats at the surface, with only the tip of its pointed head out of the water, so that on the approach of danger it can disappear beneath without leaving a ripple on the surface.
Engystoma is wholly nocturnal in habit. The Engystoma chorus is loudest at the time when the choruses of the American Toad and Spring Peeper (Pickering's Hyla) are diminishing somewhat in intensity--when these latter are singing at night only, instead of both day and night. Outside of the breeding season, Engystoma is seldom found, although one is occasionally discovered by chance under a dead log or a stone.
The isolated call sounds remarkably like the sound made by an electric buzzer. It is short, unmusical, and is vibrated very rapidly. It has been compared to the song of the American Toad, but when heard near at hand, seems as different as possible. Instead of being a sweet, tremulous note, it is a decided buzz, harsh and metallic in quality. Engystoma carolinense, when kept in captivity, sings almost continually. A throat-pouch--which extends backward to a line between the points of the arm insertions--is inflated during the call. The chorus in full swing is said to be much louder than that of the Cricket Frog (Acris gryllu) or of the Swamp Tree Frog (Chorophilus n. feriarum).
That this batrachian is found in southern Illinois is an interesting fact, as it marks Illinois as part of a southern zoological region, very different from other places of the same latitude.