The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 08 (of 10)Gadow, Hans
Science
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 08 (of 10)
Gadow, Hans
Animals
2. Var. _typica_ (_esculenta_, Linnaeus).–The heels just meet, but do not
overlap. The inner metatarsal tubercle is strong, compressed, and
prominent. A small outer tubercle is present. The heel reaches to the eye
or a little further; the hinder surface of the thighs is "marbled with
black, usually with more or less bright yellow pigment" in the living
specimens; the vocal sacs are white or feebly pigmented. This race inclines
to rather more green than the others, the males especially are often dark
grass-green, with scarcely any markings. The vertebral stripe is then
yellowish, and the lateral stripes almost golden. The range extends over
the whole of Central Europe and the kingdom of Italy. Its northern limit is
the southern end of Sweden. In the greater portion of Germany, Poland, and
Austria it overlaps the var. _ridibunda_, with which it does not seem to
pair, owing to a difference in the time of spawning; the var. _typica_
being about a fortnight later, and beginning to spawn when the other has
finished.
3. Var. _lessonae_, Camerano.–Except that the inner tubercle is stronger,
while the outer one is near the vanishing point, and that the fourth toe is
proportionally longer, this variety is really not distinguishable from the
typical form, and Boulenger himself confesses that the distinction is
arbitrary. The var. _lessonae_ seems to have a rather sporadic
distribution. It has been found in Piedmont and other parts of Italy, in
Hungary and Transylvania, near Vienna, Halle, Upper Bavaria, on the Rhine,
near Brussels, Paris, and what is of especial interest to us, in a few
places in the eastern counties of England.
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