238 



ANURA 



upper edge of the eyelids,, others on the heel and above the 

 vent. The colour and markings are very variable, the ground- 

 colour is yellowish to pink, brown, grey or olive, with darker 

 and lighter markings. Total length of the males 3 inches, of 

 females :^^ inches. — Guppy, the discoverer of this peculiar 

 creature, remarks that " horned Frogs are very numerous in 

 these islands, and so closely do they imitate their surround- 

 ings in colour and pattern, that on one occasion I captured 

 one by accidentally placing my hand on it when clasping a 

 tree." 



Sub-Fam. 2. Raninae. — The vertebrae are procoelous and 

 devoid of ribs. The precoracoids are always present and ossified 

 from the clavicles, and are parallel with the much stronger and 

 ossified coracoids. The omosternum usually possesses a bony 

 style, but in the Indian genera Nannoljatrachus and Nannophrys 

 and in Phyllodromus of Ecuador it remains cartilaginous, and 

 in Colosthetus of Colombia it is absent. The metasternum 

 also possesses a bony style, but it remains cartilaginous in the 

 Indian genera Oxyglossus, Nannoplirys, Naiinohatrachiis and Phyllo- 

 dromus, in the last two genera rather reduced and slender, 

 while in the Ecuadorian and Colombian genera Hylixalus, 

 Frostherapis and Colosthetus, it is reduced to a membranous piece. 

 In quite a number of genera the normal number of phalanges 

 is increased by one owing to the intercalation of an extra 

 phalanx between the terminal and the otherwise penultimate 

 phalanx,^ This is the case in all the species of Cassina, 

 Hylambates, Bappia, Megcdixalus, JkJtacojjhorus, Cldromaiitis, 

 Ixalus and Nyctixalus, but it is doubtful if all these genera 

 are thereby more nearly related to each other than to the rest of 

 the Raninae. The structure of the tips of the fingers and 

 toes exhibits more variety. The terminal phalanges are mostly 

 simple, with slight swellings at the ends, or they are Y- or T- 

 shaped in conformity with more or less developed adhesive discs ; 

 in the African genus Hylainbates only they are claw-shaped, as 

 in the Hylidae. 



Gampsosteonyx batesi, recently described by Boulenger from 



the Gaboon, shows a iinique modification of the terminal 



phalanges of the second to the fifth toes. They are transformed 



into sharp and curved claws, like those of a cat, but instead 



' See Boulenger, P.Z.S. 1888, p. 204. 



