04 MR W. K. PARKKR ON THE STRUCTURE AND 



types with sharp, or broad toes ; with narrow or wide backs ; witli or witliout neck 

 glands ; with soft or stony skidls. 



For this tribe is notable, perhaps above all others, for ready response to surroundings; 

 here is a swimming creature who learns to crawl, to walk, to leap, to climb, and to whom 

 (in a rare instance) even a sort of flight is not denied. Moreover, the slow metamorphosis 

 of the larva may take place in these types in the water, in the damp floor of the jungle, 

 in the foliage of trees, or in a large bag, or in little pockets, on the back of the mother. 



This Frog, which is about equal in size to our native species but much stouter, has 

 its skull even less ossified than the common kind ; this is true both of the endocranial 

 " centres" and the investing plates. 



In this it diflfers from most of the species of liana of its own territory, but agrees 

 with them in other things, rather tlian with that familiar species, whose distribution 

 reaches even to us. The nasal and auditoiy regions are about equal in axial extent ; 

 the orbital region is one-third longer ; the hind skull is of extraordinary breadth. 



The occipital condyles (occ.) are large, reniform, and postero-inferior; they are .sepa- 

 rated by a shallow notch less than their own bi-eadth, and the foramen magnum (f.m.) 

 is large and oblique, the roof retreating forwards. The double canal {a.s.c, p.s.c.) is 

 large and projects beyond the less evident horizontal canal {h.s.c.) ; the capsule pro- 

 jects as an obliquely oblong tract. The ex-occipitals (c.o.) do not reach to the stape.s, 

 right and left, and only slightly overlap the parasphenoid ; the pi'ootics (pr.o.) guard 

 the outside of the foramina ovalia (V.) and mount up over the two front ampuliaj ; 

 thus there is a very large cruciform tract of cartilage on the floor of the hind skull. 

 There are no lesser fontanelles, and the main space is only half as long as the cranial roof, 

 and is long and emarginate behind; it is partly uncovered in front (fig. l,fo.). The 

 interorbital i-egion is narrow, lessening steadily forwards; the roof is enlarged a little 

 in front by the small oblong superorbital tracts of cartilage {s.ob.). The long, oval, 

 optic fenestra (11.) lies in the middle of a large unossified tract, which leaves the 

 girdle-bone (eth.) only two-fifths of the orbital space ; that is, however, compensated 

 bv the bone running almost to the pro-rhinals, below, and along the hinder third of 

 the septum nasi (s.n.), above. The nasal roof is only two-thirds as large as the floor 

 (s.?i., s.71.1.), the front of it is elegantly sinuous, for the thick septiun projects as a 

 small subconical prenasal rostrum. The angles of the floor (s.n.l.) project well into 

 the fore part of the wide face, and the pro-rhinals {2).rh.) are large, long, and uncinate. 

 The rising wall (al.n.) grows up behind the nostril from the surface of the angle of the 

 floor, but does not form a peifect ring by coalescing with the roof as in the larger 

 Oriental Frogs. 



The narial valves {n.V.ii.l- .) are large and normal. 



The p;dato-suspensorial arches are slender behind, but in front they are thick at 

 their root {('.]>a.), and have a large pre-palatine spike (in front of pa.), and continue wide 

 inside the maxillary until they end as a lobe {pt.pa.) from which the narrow^er ptery- 

 goid cartilage grows. The pedate pedicles {pd.) are sharp and well formed, and reach 



