Akt. X. — Tivo New Species of Frogs from Victoria. 



By BALDWIN SPENCER, M.A., F.R.S. 



[Read 6tli September, 1900.] 



In 1891, Mr A. H. S. Lucas published a list of the Amphibian 

 fauna of Victoria in which he included all the forms then 

 recorded from the colony, the total number being 17 species.^ It 

 might have been thought that the damp cool gullies of both 

 Victoria and Tasmania would have been peculiarly well adapted 

 for the development of a rich Amphibian fauna, but such does 

 not appear to have been the case, and both of the latter colonies 

 are decidedly poorer in this respect than New South Wales. So 

 far as we know yet, the few species which exist in Tasmania are 

 all identical with common Victorian forms. As a general rule, 

 the species of Amphibia met with in Victoi'ia are very widely 

 distributed and exist in considerable numbers. On the other 

 hand there are a few species, whose numbers will doubtless be 

 added to, which are notable for their restricted distribution, and 

 when the, as yet, little zoologically explored districts of the colony, 

 such as Croajingolong and the Cape Otway country, have been 

 more fully searched, our Amphibian fauna may prove to be 

 richer than it appears to be at the present time. I am much 

 indebted to Mr. C. Frost and to Mr. R. Hall for the opportunity 

 of adding to our Amphibian fauna the two species now described. 



In 1898 Mr. Frost was camped out during cold wet weather 

 on Mount Baw Baw, which forms part of the Great Dividing- 

 Range in Victoria. Having captured a specimen of the " tiger " 

 snake {^Hoplocephalus curtus) he put it into a bag, in which it 

 remained for two days. At the expiration of this time, Mr. 

 Frost found, on opening the bag, that the snake had disgorged 

 five specimens of a frog which it had evidently, owing to their 

 comparatively good state of preservation, eaten only a short time 



1 Proc. R. S. Vict., vol. iv., pt. 1, 1892. " Notes on the distribution of Victorian Batra- 

 chians witli description of two new species." 



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