10 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OP AUSTRALIAN BATRACHIA, 



Every collection recorded, doulitless only more or less, and some- 

 times even very, incompletely represents the batrachian fauna of 

 the particular locality whence it came. More particularly was 

 this the case when the collectors were unprepared for burrowers, 

 and when the collecting was not continued over a sufficiently long- 

 period, preferably over several seasons. 



In an interesting paper on " The Distribution of Fresh-water 

 Fishes''* in Anaeiioa, Professor Jordan says: "It is easy to 

 ascertidn the more common inhabitants of any given stream. 

 It is difficult, however, to obtain negative results which are 

 really results. You cannot often say that a species does not live 

 in a certain stream. You can only affirm that you have not yet 

 found it there ; and you can rarely fish in a stream so long that 

 you can find nothing that you have not taken before." If in this 

 extract for the words " stream" and "fish," wherever such occur, 

 we substitute the words "district" and "collect," we shall have 

 the case not less admirably stated as regards Batrachians. 



In spite of the difficulties in the way of getting even approxi- 

 mately complete collections, and in acquiring negative evidence of 

 value, and though many desirable localities are still untouched, 

 already certain conclusions, which further knowledge may extend 

 but cannot otherwise very materially alter, may at this stage quite 

 legitimately be drawn. 



It is quite evident that batrachians ai'e to be found in the 

 interior wherever the conditions allow of their existing, not only 

 near the rivers, but at a distance from these wherever there are 

 lakes, lagoons, or swamps, even though these are not always 

 absolutely proof against frequent or long continued droughts. 

 A newspaper reporter quite recently accompanying a Minister of 

 the Crown on a journey to the Bogan just after the breaking-up 

 of a dry season thus describes what he saw between Warren and 

 Coonamble, N.S. W. : "The scenery was of the monotonous order 

 peculiar to the plain country. There were great bare patches of 

 miles in extent without a living thing to be seen except a few 



* Trans. American Fisheries Society, 1888, p. 4. 



