ii\TR\ci[iA sviJKvrrA. 49 



1 . Uperodon marmoratum. 



Engvstoma marmoratum, Ctiv. Regne Anim. ; Guerin, Iconoqr. Rept. 



pi. 27. f. ^. 

 Systoina luschenaiiltii, Tsrhudi, Batr. p. 80. 

 Uperodoa marmoratum, Dion, i^- Bibr. p. 749. 



Olive mottled with brown ; mctatar.sus with two large flat, oval 

 tubercles ; a membranaceous prominence behind each inner nostiil. 



a-c. Adult and half-grown. Madras. Presented by J. C. Jerdon, 

 Esq. 



d. Adult female : skeleton. Madi'as. Presented by J. C. Jerdon, Esq. 



e. Adult. India. 



/. Adult : not good state. India, From Mr. Parrcy's Collection. 



The sheletoti of this species is highly interesting from the total 

 absence of a clavicuJa, which peculiarity was not observed in any of 

 the Batracliia anoura, and of which the two following gent;ra partake. 

 We know too little of the mode of life of these animals to bring it in 

 connexion with a physiological peculiarity. Together with the cla- 

 vicle, the manubrium stcrni is absent. Both scapula and coracoid 

 are very strong, and the latter has a much dilated inner end, for 

 forming a long suture with that of the other side ; the xiphoid is 

 formed by two thin dilated bony plates with a suture between, and 

 together representing a circular, rather concave plate. The supra- 

 sccq^tda is not entirely ossified, having in the middle a cartilaginous 

 interspace separating the two bony branches from one another, as 

 we find to be more or less the case iu many other frogs and toads. 

 The humerus as well as the femur are provided with a sharp ridge 

 along the upper half of the inner side, the ridge of the humei-us being 

 broader, about as broad as the diameter of the bone itself ; the first 

 cimeiform bone is very enlarged, much more than in Pelohates fuscus. 

 The configuration of the skuU Ls veiy aberrant ; all the bones of the 

 cranium being perfectly ossified, large and broad, those of the max- 

 illary and mandibidar arch weak and slender. The upper surface of 

 the skull is smooth ; the parietal bones are swollen and convex 

 behind, without shaq) crest ; they ai'e truncated in front, the angle 

 formed by the SKfnra coronata and sagittcdis being a right one, wlulst 

 in other fi'ogs the front part of the parietal bones is pointed, and 

 therefore that angle is an acute one. The frontals are large, irre- 

 gularly five-sided. Nine vertebrte : the atlas has no diapophyses, 

 but these are jjresent in the rest ; they are of great length in the 

 second, third and foui'th vertebra?, directed forward in the second, 

 backward in the fourth, longest and horizontal in the third ; they 

 are short in the fifth to the eighth vertebrae. The diapophyses of the 

 sacral vertebra have about the same size and fonn as in Bufo calamita, 

 each representing an isosceles triangle. The coccygeal style and the 

 iliac bones are slender, cylindrical, the foi-mer wdth a low shaq) ridge, 

 the latter with a prominent tubercle on the hinder end, and both 

 branches forming a much acuter angle than in Bufo calamita. 



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