230 A NEW CYSTIGNATHOID FROG FROM N.S.W., 



Until recently all efforts to acquire additional information or 

 specimens have been unsuccessful ; but in July of last year Mr. 

 W. W. Froggatt one day brought me a living specimen evidently 

 of the same species but of the other sex, quite as large as Mr. 

 Hamilton's example and M^ith the tympanum just as distinct, 

 but with the skin less shagreened and without horny tubercles on 

 the fingers. This specimen w^as found under a heap of leaves in 

 an orchard at Thornleigh, near Sydney ; and it became very 

 interesting to know that this fine species was a member of the 

 batrachian fauna of the County of Cumberland. A few weeks 

 ago Mr. R. Helms brought me a third specimen, a juvenile about 

 half grow^n, forwarded by one of our Members, Mr. L. Woolrych, 

 of Dural, near Parramatta, who found it six inches below 

 ground; this individual also has the tympanum distinct. Finally 

 last April I was fortunate in finding a fourth specimen near 

 Manly ; and like the three earlier specimens it was discovered 

 quite by accident. I had been out for a day's ramble without 

 having met with anything of particular interest, but on the way 

 home when walking along a bush track which I have often 

 traversed I came to a little creek crossing the track and running 

 after recent rain when my attention was aroused partly by an 

 unfamiliar subterranean noise, evidently that of a strange frog 

 though hardly to be called a croak, and i)artly by the sight of a 

 large frothy patch of spawn which seemed to be worth investi- 

 gating. Finally close by the sjDawn I found a hole in the bank 

 out of which in response to the necessary stimulus there presently 

 emerged, to my great satisfaction, the fine frog (^) exhibited alive 

 at our last Meeting. 



With four specimens at command, three of which have been 

 under observation while living, there is no longer any room for 

 doubt that the distinct tympanum is a constant character in this 

 frog ; and hence the necessity for regarding the species not only 

 as distinct from H. alhojjunctatus, Gr., but as not even referable 

 to the genus Heleioporus as at present defined. Speaking of the 

 auditory organ in the CystignathidcE Mr. Boulenger says " it 

 exhibits all the possible degrees of development. Several genera, 



