144 Transactions. 



Art. XIV. — On the Presence of another Australian Frog in New 



Zealand. 



By George R. Marriner, F.R.M.S., Assistant, Biological La- 

 boratory, Canterbur}' College. 



\Rcad before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, I4:th Xovember, 1906.] 



Our New Zealand fauna can only boast of one amphibian — 

 namely, the indigenous frog, Liopelma hochstetteri — which was 

 rare at the time of its discovery, but now is rarer still, if not 

 almost extinct, only being found occasionally on the Coromandel 

 Peninsula. 



About the year 1868 several batches of the common green 

 Australian frog, Hyla aurea, were liberated in different parts of 

 New Zealand, as Christ church, Wellington, &c. : these have in- 

 creased so much that they are now to be seen in hundreds in 

 many parts of the country. 



Since the introduction of Hyla aurea there is only one other 

 recorded instance of the introduction of frogs into New Zealand — ■ 

 namely, in 1898, when the Agricultural Department liberated 

 another kind of Australian frog in this country. 



Mr. T. W. Kirk, Government Biologist, writing in his re- 

 port, says, under the heading of " Climbing-frogs," " A consign- 

 ment of six dozen of these insect- destroyers was also obtained 

 and liberated at suitable spots in the following districts : West 

 Coast (North Island), Wellington Province, Wairarapa, Hawke's 

 Bay, and Auckland. This frog is similar to the ordinary com- 

 mon frog, so common in many parts of New Zealand, except that 

 it has a very considerable advantage over that species in. that 

 its toes are provided with suckers, which enables the animal to 

 climb trees and houses in search of insects. In Sydney I have 

 seen these frogs at the top of a wall four stories high." Un- 

 fortunately, Mr. Kirk does not mention the name of the frogs, 

 and so far I have been unable to obtain it. 



As late as 1904 Captain F. W. Hutton included only Hyla aurea 

 in his list of naturalised amphibians, inserted at the end of the 

 "Index Faunse Novae-Zealandise " (page 348). However, for the 

 last thirty years there has been living and increasing in West- 

 land, especially around Greymouth, another species of Australian 

 frog, which, though well known to the residents, was not thought 

 to be very different from the common green frog of Canter- 

 bury. My brother, Mr. F. G. Marriner, was the first person to 

 draw my attention to the presence of this amphibian around 

 Greymouth. He told me that the frogs in the district had a 



