270 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF AUSTRALIAN BATRACHIA, 



Mr. Rose kindly forwarded me two lots of living specimens in 

 tins of earth, and I kept them also for some time in a vivarium 

 with a layer of earth on the bottom sufficiently deep to allow them 

 to burrow comfortably out of sight. On turning them out of the 

 tins of earth in which they came they were found snugly ensconced 

 in little chambers below the surface ; the soil being clayey it 

 appeared to me as if after having reached the bottom of the tin 

 the frogs, perhaps by puffing themselves out, and by turning 

 themselves round and round, had succeeded in pushing back the 

 earth, and by pressure in puddling the clay to some extent, so 

 forming a little chamber with firm walls, a supposition to which 

 the portion of the chamber sent me by Mr. Rose also lends support. 

 Those kept for some time alive by me were, except for a short time in 

 one solitary instance, not on view during the day time. Partly 

 owing perhaps to nocturnal habits, and partly to burrowing habits, 

 Mr. Rose tells me that he has rarely met with them above ground 

 — once on a wet night, and once in the case of a specimen which fell 

 into a box let into the ground from which it was unable to make 

 its way out. Like Notaden it has the habit of puffing itself out 

 when interfered with ; and a similar statement is applicable to a 

 specimen of C. australis referred to below. In keeping with its 

 retiring habits, C. r platyce r phalus is clad in sombre tints, which are 

 not very seriously interfered with by the action of alcohol ; my 

 specimens when alive might have been described as above of an 

 olive-grey or greyish-brown much freckled with darker spots and 

 blotches, but without any definite pattern ; beneath white, the 

 throat of the male slightly and finely dotted with darker. 



This may perhaps be the species referred to in a letter to the 

 Australasian of date August 2nd, 1890, as occurring on the Paroo, 

 of which the writer says " all those that I saw were found not in, 

 or very near, water, but at from 6-12 inches below the surface of 

 the ground, each in a cavity just large enough to contain it, a 

 great peculiarity being that for several inches all round the earth 

 was caked as hard almost as a brick. Native name of Darling 

 blacks ' cowari.'" 



