_B. marinus_ s. _agua_ is the giant among toads, and is one of the commonest species of the Neotropical region, ranging from the Antilles and Mexico to Argentina. It frequently reaches a length of 6 inches, with a width of 4 inches when squatting down in its favourite attitude. The upper parts are rough, owing to the prominent warty glands, of which the parotoid complex is enormous. The general colour above is dark brown, with sooty dark patches; below whitish, often with blackish patches. This creature appears at dusk, often in large numbers, especially during the rainy season, hopping about, not crawling, with surprising {179}activity. The voice of the male, strengthened by a subgular sac, is said to be a kind of loud snoring bark. The pairing time begins, according to Hensel,[82] with the winter rainy season, especially June, and lasts several months, until October, but it is interrupted by the cold, which in the hills of South-Eastern Brazil covers the ponds with ice. Then the tremulous bass voice of the males is heard no longer; they have all withdrawn beneath stones and trees in the neighbourhood of the water. The eggs are laid in strings. The larvae are at first quite black and very small, and the young baby-toads are only 1 cm. in length. They differ considerably from the adult until they are more than 1 inch long; the upper parts are yellowish brown, with darker ocellated patches, each with a light seam, most conspicuous along the sides of the head and back. The under parts are grey, finely stippled with yellow. Budgett[83] remarks that _B. marinus_ feeds on all kinds of insects. "One half-grown specimen sitting by a man's foot picked off fifty-two mosquitoes in the space of one minute, picking them up with the tongue as they settled. The call of this very common toad consists of three bell-like notes; the middle one being the highest. The enormous parotoid glands are discharged like squirts when the creature is roughly handled. When wet weather comes on it hops out from its hiding-place to sit in a puddle, with its head out."