668 AUSTRALIAN BATRACHIA, 



the backs of the thighs. Finall}^ a single specimen from another 

 locality (Mt. Lofty, Vic.) kindly given to me by Mr. Frost, has a 

 bluish-black spot in the groin extending on to the loins, or on one 

 side with a separate spot on the loins, and a blackish spot and 

 some brown markings on the back of each thigh. The last of 

 these I should call a good example of var. calliscelis; the others 

 typical examples of //. eivingii, or a trivial colour-variety. 



An extensive series of New South Wales specimens from 

 various localities on the coast and on the tablelands is separable into 

 two or three groups : one of unspotted specimens with a distinct 

 rudiment of web, in some I think not appreciably more in amount 

 than in average Tasmanian and Victorian specimens, in others a 

 little more ( H. krejftii, so-called); a second group in which one 

 or two large dark spots, or a group pf smaller ones, are present 

 on the sides of the body or the backs of the thighs, but more 

 often and constantly on the loins; and a third group in which in 

 addition the back and the sides, or the upper surface of the limbs, 

 are heavily blotched, streaked or spotted, but not uniformly or 

 to the same extent in a series of specimens from the same locality. 

 Now the webbing of the fingers of the spotted New South Wales 

 examples certainly varies in amount from very little indeed to 

 nothing. I have some specimens whose fingers I should call free; 

 and others of which one can say that they are slightly fringed or 

 have a just recognisable rudiment of web, and that is about all. 

 They are certainly appreciably less webbed than either the 

 unspotted specimens, or than average Tasmanian and Victorian 

 specimens. Such rudiment of web as there is seems to be merely 

 the continuation right round of the slight fringe of adjacent 

 fingers, or, in other words, of the junction of the fringes of two 

 adjacent fingers. But in var. krefftii, as in average Tasmanian 

 and Victorian specimens, there seems to be in addition a slight 

 development of web as well. 



What is true of the fingers, applies also to the toes, the webbing 

 of the latter varying in amount directly as that of the fingers. 



Professor Spencer in the Report of the Horn Expedition (Part 

 ii. Zoology, pp. 157 and 167) has discussed the question of the 



