246 



ANURA 



Several species of this genus are remarkable for two reasons. 

 First, the great enlargement of the fully- webbed hands and feet, 

 which are then used as parachutes; secondly, the mode of pro- 

 pagation. 



Greatly exaggerated notions are, however, entertained about 

 the parachutes, ever since Wallace's description ^ of the hrst 

 ■' flying frog." The creature was brought to him in Borneo by 



Fig. 48. — lihacvplwrus pardalis, x about 1. (From Wallace, Malatj Arcliipelago.) 



a Chinese workman. " He assured me that he had seen it come 

 down, in a slanting direction, from a high tree, as if it flew. . . . 

 The body was about four inches long, while the webs of each 

 hind-foot, when fully expanded, covered a surface of four square 

 inches, and the webs of all the feet together about twelve square 

 inches." 



The species in (juestion is lUt. pardalis, an iidialntant of 

 Borneo and of the Philippine Islands. Specimens from AVa Race's 

 Collection are in the National Collection and the largest speci- 

 ^ Mnlay Archipelago, 2nd ed. i. 1869, ]i. 38. 



