FROGS AND TOADS 



205 



The Tree-FKocs represent one of the most distinct 



groups of the tribe. Ail its members are more or less 



arboreal in their habits, repairing to the water only 



during the breeding-season, or leasing the trees to seek 



shelter in the earth or underneath stones or timber for 



the purposes of hibernation. As an adaptation for their 



special habits, the toes of the tree-frogs are provided 



at their tips with suctorial disks, so that they can walk 



on perpendicular or smoothly glazed surfaces after the 



manner of the Geckos among the Lizards. Another 



characteristic feature is the development on the under 



surface of their bodies of peculiar granular glands pierced 



by numerous pores, through the medium of which they 



rapidly absorb the moisture deposited b)- dew or rain 



on the surfaces of the leaves among which they live. 



The colours of the tree-frogs harmonise, as a rule, so com- 

 pletely with those of their leafy environments that their 



presence very readily escapes detection. Many of the 



species, moreover, rival the chameleon in their capacity 



of quickly adapting their tints to that of a newly occu- 

 pied surrounding. Green is naturally the dominant 



ground-tint of these frogs. Often, however, it is inter- 

 mixed with stripes and bands of other colours, while 



sometimes the green hue is entirely replaced, as in the 



Blle or BiCOLOURED Tree-FRoG of South America, 



which is brilliant azure above and pure white beneath. 



A very beautiful Australian species, abundant in Tasmania 



and Victoria, and appropriately named the GOLDEN Tree- 



FROG, has its grass-green overcoat thickly overlaid and 



embroidered with, as it were, the purest beaten gold. 



One small species of tree-frog is common on the 



European Continent, its distribution extending to North 



Africa and eastward throughout Asia north of the Himalaya to Japan. The species is 



imported into England inconsiderable numbers, and readily becomes acclimatised in a conserva- 

 tory. Green above and whitish 

 beneath constitute the prevailing 

 tints of this species, such uni- 

 formity being, however, varied by 

 the presence of a darker, often 

 nearly black, light-edged streak, 

 that extends from the snout through 

 the e\-e and car along each side 

 of the body, and sends a branch 

 upwards and forwards on the loins. 

 The male of this European species 

 shares with many others of its 

 tribe the possession of a large 

 e.xternal vocal sac, which when 

 inflated bulges out from the throat 

 in a spherical form to dimen- 

 sions little inferior to those of 

 the creature's body. It may be 



Moro bf If. Savillf.Krnl, f.Z-S., Milfor^-rn-Sia 



QUEENSLAND TREE-FROGS 



T^ii ipecici ii in the habit of making xtidf ut home 'n 

 chamber ivacer-jugs 



I Easibour 



rnoia b/ H. G. f. Spurrtll^ Etq.] 



COMMON TOAD 



T oadi are accredited ivith attaining an age of icveral hundred years 



14 



