364 OVIPOSITION AND HABITS OF CERTAIN BATRACHIANS, 



In correspondence with this one never sees as much spawn at 

 any one time as may be seen in an English pond when the frogs 

 are breeding. My most instructive round in one of the suburbs 

 of Sydney included a visit to an old quarry, a brick -yard, a 

 deserted tan-yard, and three waterholes in paddocks used for 

 watering cattle; these five spots were frequented during some 

 period of the year by at least eleven species of frogs. If during 

 a visit to these on the same afternoon in the whole of the ponds 

 together between 100 and 200 individual deposits of spawn co.uld 

 be counted, I should consider it a very brisk outburst of spawning. 

 And one might make this same round after every heavy downpour 

 of rain thronghout the year and iind more or less spawn as des- 

 cribed. But for the "gallons of jelly " which may be seen in 

 English and American ponds* when the frogs are breeding, one 

 looks in vain out here. 



There are also indications of seasonal differences in the breeding 

 periods of different species, respecting which fuither details are 

 given later on. 



Mr. Krefft says : " During the breeding season, however (about 

 November), many otherwise nocturnal frogs may be seen in broad 

 daylight in search of their mates The greater num- 

 ber of species have deposited their ova in the beginning of Decem- 

 ber, though I have reason to believe that some species breed at all 

 seasons, for I have taken Pseudoplwyne australis in mid-winter 

 full of ova, and have observed larvae of this and of several other 

 species in pools of water about the same time. All the Hylidse, 

 however, deposit their ova only once a year, generally in Novem- 

 ber and December" (I.e. No. 2, p. 19). On the whole the breeding 

 period is shorter and perhaps better marked in the majority of the 

 Hylidae which may be said to spawn during the latter half of 

 spring, and summer, certainly both earlier and later than Mr. 

 Krefft mentions ; Hyla ewlngii var. calliscelis, on the other hand, 

 is a remarkable exception. As far as my observation goes, Pseudo- 

 •phryne australis may be fairly said to spawn during summer, and 



* " Wake Robin," by John Burroughs, (English edition) p. 181. 



