BY J. J. FLETCHER. 359 



numbers of these useful but disregarded creatures are sent from 

 Europe to Australia to help to keep the gardens free from noxious 

 and destructive guests, such as snails, insects, &c."* 



Of the frogs occurring in this neighbourhood then I have at 

 different times found pairs referable to about ten species in coitio, 

 and in most cases have been able to identify the ova, and to 

 determine the circumstances under which oviposition takes place. 

 The species referred to are Liinnodynastes tasmaniensis, L. dor- 

 saliSj Crinia signifera, Hyla aurea, H. ewingii var. calliscelis, 

 H. i:>hyllocliToa^ H. citropics, ffyj?erolia marmo7'ata, FseudojyJiryne 

 australis, and P. hibronii. With the exception of the two 

 species of Pseudo2yhryne (and perhaps, though I doubt it, also 

 Hyperolia marmorata, of which I have seen the ova, but only 

 when laid under abnormal conditions) these come under Section 

 A. of Group I of Mr. Boulenger's Synoptic Table,! that is 

 to say : — 



i. *' The ovum is small and the larva leaves it in a comparatively early 

 embryonic condition." 



A. '* The ova are laid in water." 



" Probably the majority of Batrachians ; all European forms except 



Alytes."' 



In regard to some of the remaining species, by noting the dates 

 on which males with breedin;^ papillae have been found, or young 

 ones completing their metamorphoses, some idea of the breeding 

 season has been gained ; while the occurrence of recognisable tad- 

 poles in ponds which one has been regularly in the habit of 

 visiting, together w^ith a knowledge of the characters of such 

 ponds and of the facilities which they offer to frogs for depositing 

 ova, enable one to form opinions which will probably eventually 

 be found to approximate to the truth. Hence from such incom- 

 plete observations as I have been able to make I think that by 

 far the majority of the remaining species occurring in the County 

 of Cumberland also deposit their ova in water in the ordinary 



* "First Year of Scientific Knowledge." By Paul Bert. English 

 Edition translated by Madame Bert (1886), p, 61. 

 ''Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 1886 (5), xvii, p. 463. 



