HERPETOLOGY OP JAPAN, 



75 



Habitat. — Widely distributed tlirough India, Ceylon, Burma, the 

 Malayan peninsula and archipelago to southern China and Formosa. 

 Boulenger states that in the Sikhim Himalayas it ascends to about 

 10,000 feet and in the Nilgiris to 7,000 feet. 



In Formosa it seems to be common, as Mr. Tada collected many spec- 

 imens at Taipa and Giilan during September and October, 1896. 

 There are two specimens in the British Museum from Taiwan fu, col- 

 lected by Hoist. 



List of spenmens of Bufo melanostictus. 



oDeseription, p. 74. 



fc Description, p. 73, figs. 58-61. 



Family HYLID.^. 



The tree-toads are characterized by the presence of teeth in the 

 upper jaw, or in both upper and lower jaws, combined with an arci- 

 ferous shoulder-girdle and dilated sacral lateral processes; bone of 

 last toe-joint claw-shaped. 



A large family of wide distribution, though not occurring in the 

 Ethiopian region. The greatest number of species is found in tropical 

 America and in Australia, but only a few in Asia and Europe. 

 Most of the forms are arboreal with the tip of the digits enlarged 

 into a disk, which is more or less sticky. Some are modified to such 

 an extent for life among the trees that they lay their eggs in water 

 collected in holes in trunks and branches of trees. 



Only one genus is represented in eastern Asia. 



Genus HYLA« Laurenti. 



1768. Hyla Laurenti, Synops. Rept., p. 32 (type, H. viridis). 



1799. Calamita Schneider, Hist. Amph., I, p. 151, comp. p. 174 (type, C. arboreus). 



a Not derived from the Greek word vX?/, wood-land, copse, as commonly stated, but 

 from the vocative of Hylas, in Greek mythology the favorite of Hercules, who lost him 

 in Bithynia, the crying of hyla, hyla being part of the religious ceremonies instituted 

 in his honor. The croaking of the tree-toad suggested to Laurenti the fanciful idea of 

 its l)eingHyla's priest, and thus meriting his name, "hsec quasi Hylae sacerdos nomen 

 ejusdem merita est." 



