1 66 ANURA 



CHAP. 



living in the immediate vicinity of the water, into which it hops 

 with a long jump in order to hide in the mud. Easily kept, 

 it breeds regularly in captivity, according to circumstances at 

 almost any time of the year. 



P. caucasicus has been discovered in the Caucasus at an 

 altitude of 7000 feet. The remaining genera of this family 

 contain only a few species each, and are restricted to South- 

 western Asia, the Malay and Papuan Islands. The commonest 

 is Leptohrachium, which ranges from the Himalayas to Borneo 

 and Java. Pupil vertical. Vomerine teeth sometimes absent. 

 Tongue roundish, very slightly nicked behind. Tympanum in- 

 distinct. Omosternum small, cartilaginous. Male with internal 

 vocal sacs. Tarsus with a roundish tubercle. Some of the 

 species, e.g. L. carmense from the Karen Hills, attain to a large 

 size, namely, 6 inches ; they seem to live on rats and mice, and 

 one specimen contained a young squirrel. 



Fam. 3. Bufonidae (Toads). — The formula : — no teeth in the 

 upper and lower jaws, vertebrae procoelous and without ribs, sacral 

 diapophyses dilated, — is sufficiently diagnostic of this cosmopolitan 

 family. The generally entertained notion that toads have a 

 rather thick-set, short-limbed, warty appearance, does not apply to 

 all the members of the family. The majority are quite terrestrial, 

 many are burrowing, the Javanese Nectes is aquatic, the Afro-Indian 

 ISfectophryne is arboreal, while the Mexican Myolatrachus and the 

 Australian Rhinoiihrynus eat termites and are correspondingly 

 modified; lastly, Bufo jerhoa is a slender, long-legged creature. 



Teeth are almost entirely absent, except in Notaden, which 

 has teeth on the vomers. The omosternum is mostly absent, 

 except in Emjystomops and in some species of Bufo, while in 

 Notaden it is merely vestigial. The metasternum shows more 

 variety. The tympanum is usually distinct, but varies even 

 \vithin the same genus, being hidden beneath the skin or being 

 entirely absent. The terminal phalanges are modified according 

 to the habits of the species, but they are never claw-shaped. 



The Bufonidae are connected in various directions. The Neo- 

 tropical Unyystomops greatly resembles the likewise Neotropical 

 Cystignathoid ]\dudicola, and the Australian Pseiidophryne closely 

 approaches the Australian Cystignathoid Crinia. It is therefore 

 all the more remarkable that a similar approach, in another 

 direction, namely, towards the Firmisternal family of the Engysto- 



