RANA. 271 



still very incompletely ascertained, specimens being 

 known from England (Cambridgeshire and Norfolk), 

 the Rhine, Upper Bavaria (Matzing), the province 

 Saxony, Austria near Vienna, Hungary (Szamos- 

 Ujvar and Hermannstadt), Piedmont, and probably 

 other parts of Italy as well as Sicily, where it occurs 

 according to Oamerano. A specimen stated to be 

 from Malta, which I received from the Zoological 

 Society, was probably imported from Italy or Sicily. 

 To my surprise I captured, in September, 1895, a few 

 specimens in a small pond at Berchem-St.-Agathe, 

 near Brussels. I had not previously met with that 

 form in Belgium. I again came across the same 

 variety in April, 1897, in a pond at Mesnil-St. -Blaise, 

 near Givet, where it was very abundant, and where the 

 typical form seemed to be absent. 



I have also lately ascertained its presence near 

 Paris. Whilst looking over M. Lataste's collection I 

 was struck by a female specimen from Bondy which 

 belongs to this variety, and which I find had not re- 

 mained unnoticed by the excellent herpetologist to 

 whom we owe its discovery in France. Although he 

 had quite correctly estimated its relationship to the 

 Italian form, the name under which he designated 

 it* can hardly have precedence over that proposed by 

 Camerano, who was the first to give a precise definition 

 of this frog and assign it its correct place in the 

 system. The same form had also been named, and 

 in a certain way defined, by Bonaparte in 1839 as 

 " liana fluviatilis, Rusconi, artubus brevissimis, colo- 

 ribus luridis." 



As mentioned further on, the British specimens are 

 perhaps introduced from Italy. Now, however, that 

 the habitat of the var. lessonse is known not to be 



* " J'ai trouve a Bondy une jolie variete de cette espece, plus petite, 

 plus do-due, plus vivement coloree, rappelant celle qui servit a Spallan- 

 zani pour ses fameuses experiences sur la generation. Du moins 

 repond-elle fort bien a la courte description de cet Anoure. A. de 

 l'lsle croit, avec Spallanzani, que cette forme merite d'etre specifique- 

 ment distinguee, et lui donne le noin de Buna meridionalis." — Lataste, 

 'Act. Soc. Linn. Bord.' (4), i, 1S76, p. 13. 



