358 OVIPOSITION AND HABITS OF CERTAIN BATRACHIANS, 



aurea, Limnodynastes dorsalis, and L. tasmaniensis to accom- 

 pany coloured plates of these species. These, together with the 

 notes of Messrs. Aitken and Sanger (infra p. 361) I believe, 

 comprise all but what relate to the taxonomy of Australian 

 Batrachians. 



The species of frogs referred to in what follows are, with one 

 exception, comprised in the Batrachian fauna of the neighbour- 

 hood of Sydney, or, as it would be better to say, of the County of 

 Cumberland, a district which, with an average rainfall of 50 

 inches, is, for Australia, one very favourable to Batrachian life. 

 Tt is necessary to point this out because Australia presents such 

 a wide range of climate, and many of the species are more or less 

 cosmopolitan; hence it may be that individuals of the same 

 species may present differences in habits according to locality and 

 variations in external conditions, and more particularly rainfall. 



Reference to Boulenger's " Catalogue of the Batrachia Salientia 

 in the British Museum " (1882) shows about fifty species to be 

 therein recorded from Australia and Tasmania, while last year 

 the same gentleman described two additional species ; of these 

 New South Wales may be credited with about thirty, and the 

 County of Cumberland with about twenty. This number suffices 

 to show how rich in Batrachians the neighbourhood of Sydney is, 

 though owing to the steadily increasing area required for settle- 

 ment, the consequent removal of sheltering logs and stones, the 

 contamination of the ponds and creeks with sewage, and the 

 increasing numbers of ducks, geese, and small boys, the collector 

 of frogs already has to lament the devastation of some of the best 

 collecting grounds in the neighbourhood. Though other local lists 

 are not so far available, yet as many of the species are more or 

 less cosmopolitan, and each of the colonies has one or more 

 peculiar species, Australians may well be astonished at the 

 following ridiculous statement, more especially as it is made by 

 so eminent a scientific man as the late Paul Bert : '' In our 

 country the poor toads are often cruelly and stupidly destroyed. 

 It will undoubtedly not a little astonish you to hear that great 



