BY J. J. FLETCHER. 365 



P. hibronii during autumn. Whether some species do not also 

 spawn more than once in the year is very probable, but it is a 

 difficult matter to decide. If this is not the case with some of 

 them then these might almost be said to " breed at all seasons." 

 The species of Limnodynastes, however, should be excluded, as 

 though their breeding season is long enough to give them the oppor- 

 tunity of spawning at least once in half-a-year, yet there is a well- 

 marked though perhaps not very long period in winter (say two 

 months or longer or shorter according to circumstances) during 

 which heavy rain neither sets them croaking nor breeding, though 

 in the interval Crinia signifera, and Hyla ewingii Yar. - calUsceUs 

 may be breeding and lustily vocal. 



Characters of the spaivn. — All the spawn observed by me has 

 been (1) white frothy-looking more or less circular floating patches, 

 larger or smaller according to the species, deposited in the water ; 

 or (2) small submerged bunches of ova enclosed in clear transparent 

 jelly attached to blades of grass or reeds, or twigs of dead branches, 

 or (3) numerous separate ova not laid in the water but under 

 stones, or debris in reed or grass tussocks on the edges of pools. 



The first section includes the spawn deposited by Limnodynastes 

 tasmaniensis, L. peronii, L. dorsalis, and Hyla aurea ; probably 

 also that of H. citropus, H. ccertdea, H. peronii, H. freycincti and 

 others. The floating patches when fresh are more or less circular 

 if free, isolated or often in corners or behind a particularly good 

 bit of shelter the spawn of a few contiguous spawning couples 

 accidentally coalescent, conspicuous from the white colour, and 

 look very much like the froth of soap-suds. If there is no wind 

 they may continue to float freely ; otherwise they become adherent 

 to the bank, or anything else with which they come in contact, by 

 the sticky and tenacious gelatinous substance enclosing the ova, or 

 they may have become so from the first where laid. Limnodynastes 

 tasmaniensis is very fond of spawning in ditches close to the bank 

 under overhanging ledges. Sometimes the ova are deposited in 

 the middle of a bunch of reeds or grass to which the patches are 

 anchored from the first, or about the bases of tussocks ; in many 



