OBSERVATIONS ON THE OVIPOSITION AND HABITS 

 OF CERTAIN AUSTRALIAN BATRACHIANS. 



By J. J. Fletcher, M.A., B.Sc. 



The object of my remarks is suggested by the following quota- 

 tion from a paper by Dr. Giinther : " Our knowledge of the 

 mode of propagation of extra-European Batrachians is restricted 

 to a very small number of species ; and from the few singular 

 facts with which we have become acquainted, we may expect that 

 most interesting discoveries will be made by naturalists who have 

 the opportunity of observing these animals in their native 

 countries." "^ 



The late Mr. Krefft at different times published three lists of 

 Australian Frogs,! and one of those found in the neighbourhood 

 of Sydney;! several of these — as well as a paper " On the Verte- 

 brated Animals of the Lower Murray " &c.§ — contain particulars 

 about the habits of Australian frogs, and in one or two of them 

 the subject of their breeding is incidentally but very briefly 

 touched upon. Dr. Giinther has also recorded some observa- 

 tions II on four species of Australian frogs — three of which are 

 figured — which lived for some time in the Zoological Gardens, 

 London ; and Professor McCoy ^ has some remarks on Hyla 



* Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 1876 (4), xvii, p. 377. 



t (1) Cat. of Nat. and Indust. Products of N.S. W. forwarded to the Paris 

 Universal Exhib. of 1867, p. 107. 



(2) Monthly Not. of Fap. and Proc. Roy. Soc. of Tasmania, 1865, p. 16. 



(3) "Australian Vertebrata." The Industrial Progress of N.S.W.y 



being a Report of the Intercolonial Exhibition of 1870, at Sydney, 



p. 741. 

 JP.Z.S. 1863, p. 386. 



§ Trans. Phil. Soc. of N.S.W. 1862-65, p. 32. 

 II P.Z.S. 1863, p. 249. 

 IT Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria, Decades v and vi, pi. 42 and 63. 



