[Voiv. XX, IQ20.] G. A. B0UI.ENGER : Frog's of the Genus Rana. 15 



Tadpole with the tail i^ to 2 times as long as the body, 

 pointed, the dorsal crest extending on the body. Beak entirely 

 black, surrounded by a large circular lip, with a single, marginal, 

 series of horny teeth in front, and two series behind, both unin- 

 terrupted.' Size large (up to 100 milim. or more). 



Eggs small, i to i^ milim. in diameter. 



Habitat. South Arabia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Himalayas 

 up to 6,000 ft., India and Ceylon. The occurrence of this species 

 in the Malay Peninsula {fide Cantor) is very doubtful. 



There is something wrong in Dumeril and Bibron's description 

 of R. leschenaultii, as the belly is stated to be ' perce de pores dis- 

 poses en lignes,' as in R. hexadactyla , which, is not the case in any of 

 the specimens examined by me. I have examined the t3^pe speci- 

 mens, nine in number, in the Paris Museum, and find in two of 

 them a short series of pores on each side of the posterior part of 

 the belly. The usual absence of the series of small porous warts 

 on the lower parts is one of the most striking characters distin- 

 guishing R. cyanophlyclis from R. hexadadyla. 



[The tadpoles of this species are plastic and vary considerably 

 with their environment. Those from the edge of streams are more 

 slender and smaller than those from still water. The former can 

 often be distinguished from the tadpoles of R. hcxadactyla by little 

 but colour. 



I have recently described the manner in which R. cyanophlyc- 

 tis skips over the surface of the water {Rec. Ind. Mus. XVI, p. 122) — 

 a habit first noticed by the Emperor Babur in the i6th century 

 and wrongly attributed in recent times to R. limnocharis , the 

 structure of the feet of which is quite unsuitable. 



The geographical range of R. cyanophlydis extends along the 

 Mekran Coast into Persian Baluchistan, where Blanford's speci- 

 mens were obtained. It is also common in the Quetta hills up to 

 at least 6,000 feet. I failed to find it in the Baluchistan desert or in 

 Seistan, but Nikolsky has described a race from the latter country. 

 I have seen no specimens from Burma and the species is evidently 

 very scarce in the Malay Peninsula, in which it is probably 

 confined to the northern districts. There can, however, be no 

 doubt as to its occurrence in Peninsular Siam, where I captured a 

 perfectly typical specimen : see Mem. As. Soc. Bengal VI, p. 45. 



At Quetta I have seen frogs of this species floating with 

 R. sternosignata on the surface of a pond the edge of which was 

 frozen. They seemed fairly active, but did not skip. This habit 

 of skipping, however, seems to be less well- developed, as I have 

 noticed both in the Nilgiris and Himalayas, among individuals 

 living at high altitudes than in those in the plains. Hill speci- 

 mens, moreover, are usually smaller than plains specimens, but 

 this is not the case at Quetta — N.A.]. 



' According to Annandale and Rao, the condition of the rows of horny teeth 

 is variable ; they figure a specimen with a single short row on each side of the 

 upper lip and a short inner row on each side of the lower. 



