BY J. J. FLETCHER. 267 



Tenandra also after rain. The settlers say that it was just seven 

 years before that the frogs were seen in such large numbers. I heard 

 on good authority that the blacks used to use these frogs for food. 

 I myself saw an old gin seemingly enjoy as a dainty morsel the 

 muscular thighs of the frog, eating them quite raw with a little 

 salt. They are called Hervy's frog from a fanciful resemblance of 

 the pattern on the creature's back to the letter H, this being Mr. 

 Hervy's sheep brand." 



Notaden when alive is a batrachian of quaint and striking 

 appearance ; immersion in spirits, however, very soon produces a 

 washed-out effect, the bright tints (yellow, red, and green) being 

 entirely discharged or much bleached ; ordinary spirit specimens 

 thus quite fail to suggest, or at least in the forcible manner which 

 the examination of the living animal almost immediately . does, 

 that Notaden is probably an example of " warning coloration " 

 not unworthy to rank with Darwin's small Brazilian toad, or Belt's 

 now historic little Nicaraguan frog. The dorsal surface presents 

 a characteristic and very fairly constant pattern which, from the 

 inspection only of spirit specimens, has been described as due to 

 the presence of " a large cross-shaped blackish marking on the 

 back " (Boulenger) : or, as Dr. Giinther puts it, " a very broad 

 brownish band, marbled with black, along the middle of the back ; 

 it bifurcates anteriorly on the head, leaving the forehead greenish, 

 and emits a transverse bar on each side of the back behind the 

 shoulder ": this constitutes the cross-pattern to which are due two 

 of the local vernacular names by which the animal is known. In 

 the lumbar region, however, as indicated in fig. 3 of PI. xxn. of 

 the B. M. Catalogue (2nd edition), the median band emits another 

 transverse band on each side, whence arises the H-pattern referred 

 to in Mr. Curran's remarks, the H being thus placed transversely 

 with regard to the animal's back. Inspection of the living animal 

 at once renders it obvious that the characteristic pattern is not 

 quite satisfactorily expressed in the quotations given above. 

 Rather is it due to an arrangement of very dark (black) not very 

 much raised glandular warts or papillae of several sizes, together 

 with small isolated spots and patches of ferruginous or orange-red, 



