BATRACEIANS OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 391 



In dry weather these frogs are seldom seen or heard, but no sooner 

 does a shower of raiu fall than the air is filled with the volume of their 

 croakings. Inflated until in shape they resemble rather flattened 

 tennis balls, the males float in hundreds on the surface of every pool, 

 ditch, and drain, and repeat their extraordinarily loud and strident 

 cry of " ah-wauk " through day and night. Captain Flower in no way 

 exaggerates when he writes that at close quarters, if they are plentiful, 

 yon can hardly hear yourself speak, " but at the distance of a quarter 

 or half a mile the sound is not unpleasant, and is like that of a great 

 weir or waterfall." It is, I should imagine, the very noisiest frog in 

 the whole wide world. 



Males have a single large vocal sac under the throat (globular 

 when inflated), and their skin is profusely covered t with a sticky 

 siime. Flower says this slime dries into a white gum which dissolves 

 in hot water and coagulates in cold, and " has a faint aromatic 

 smell, not uupleasant." ei De gustibus . . . " / I 'find my note is 

 to the effect that the smell is "exactly like that of mice in an 

 ill-cleaned cage ! " 



Females are not slimy, and have no vocal sac. 



Specimens kept alive by Flower became very tame and showed 

 considerable intelligence ; they were nightly placed on the table-cloth 

 to devour the termites and other winged insects which crowded to the 

 lamps. 



In Selangor I had many opportunities of observing the breeding- 

 habits of this frog. The females appear able to carry the ripe spawn 

 for an indefinite period until a shower provides them with water in 

 which to deposit it, when they may be seen spawning in scores within 

 an hour of the fall of the rain. Like many other Malayan batrachians 

 they seem to have no forethought for the future water-supply for their 

 offspring, and it is a common thing to see large masses of the spawn 

 of this species and of Bufo melanostictus deposited in pools which are 

 dried up again in a few hours. Millions of their tadpoles perish in this 

 manner. The remarkably rapid development of the tadpoles is doubtless 

 to some extent a provision against this, but I imagine the majority must 

 generally perish. Considering the vocal powers of the adults this 

 infant mortality can be contemplated without sadness ! 



On one occasion at Kuala Lumpur (25th July, 1900) a heavy 

 shower fell at 11 a.m., filling to the depth of two or three feet a drain 

 3 



