193 



A LIST OF THE BATRACHIANS KNOWN TO INHABIT 



THE MALAY PENINSULA, WITH SOME REMARKS 



ON THEIR HABITS, DISTRIBUTION, &c. 



By A. L. BUTLER, f.z.s., m.b.o.u., &c. 

 {Director of Game Preservation, Soudan Government.) 

 INTRODUCTION. 

 The most recent papers dealing with the Batrachians of the Malay 

 Peninsula as a whole are those published in the " Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society " (189G and 1899), by Captain S. S. Flower, formerly 

 in charge of the Royal Siamese Museum at Bangkok, and now Director 

 of the Egyptian Government Zoological Gardens at Cairo. 



In the second paper (P. Z. S., 1899, p. 885 et seq.) 45 species of 

 Batrachians are recorded from the Peninsula, including Megalophrys 

 montana, Kuhl, mentioned somewhat doubtfully in a note, but since 

 obtained again by the " Skeat Expedition," and two species, Rana 

 jerboa, Gthr., and Nectes subasper, Tschudi, mentioned in the Addenda. 

 Since then 13 other species have been added to the Peninsula list by 

 the collections of the " Skeat Expedition " (P. Z. S., 1900, p. 883) by 

 Mr. Leonard Wray, of the Perak Museum, and myself. A brief list of 

 these additions was given by me in the P. Z. S. of June 17th, 1902 

 (p. 188). 



The present list, therefore, includes 58 species. I originally com- 

 menced this paper in the Straits, when in charge of the Selangor State 

 Museum, but a sudden and unexpected departure to a new field of 

 work in Africa separated me from my collections, which of course re- 

 mained in the Museum, and thus prevented me from being able to 

 give localities and measurements from my specimens as fully as I should 

 have wished. After some hesitation I have since completed the paper, 

 and offer it to the Society with this partial excuse for its shortcomings. 

 In the brief notes on habits, etc., I have freely supplemented my own 

 field-notes from the writings of others. The known distribution of 

 each species is given, in almost every case taken from Captain Flower's 

 papers or supplied me by Mr. Boulenger. For the benefit of local 

 workers the descriptions of species discovered since the publication 

 of Captain Flower's second paper are quoted in full. I am aware that 

 most Societies are disinclined to occupy space in their journals with 

 descriptions which have already been published, but my own experi- 

 ence is that by this economy of space the usefulness of many papers is 

 marred to field- workers who, in seeking how to recognize a species, 



