TREE-NESTING FROGS 



tells us. Tree-frogs gulp down their prey, stuffing it 

 into their mouths with their hands. They do not flash 

 out a tongue causing the fly to instantaneously dis- 

 appear like other frogs and toads. And for the good 

 reason, that their tongue is but slightly protrusible. 

 Hyla arborea can, like most frogs, change its colour. 

 There are more tree-frogs of this group than there are 

 members of any other group of amphibians. The Zoo 

 constantly harbours examples of a large Australian 

 form, Hyla ccerulea, (which is represented in the accom- 

 panying figure), a badly applied name since it is 

 green with bright white flecks. These white flecks have 

 been held to suggest to the pursuing snake spots of 

 mildew or spots of sunlight, and thus to ctissuade 

 him from attempting to devour something so obviously 

 inanimate. Inese frogs, like the European tree-frog, 

 lay their eggs in water. As a matter of fact the breeding 

 habits of tree-frogs are most varied ; some carry the 

 eggs about attached to their bodies in various ways. 

 Others make nests of greater or less elaboration even upon 

 trees. A species in Japan, apparently of this group, 

 constructs something that looks like a hornet's nest, 

 which is full of eggs, and, later, tadpoles, which would 

 after a time seem to drop into water lying beneath. 



But this bird-like fashion of making nests in trees 

 and then laying eggs in them is not confined to the 

 Hylidae. Nor, of course, is the mode adopted by some 

 of carrying the eggs about the person, even as in Noto- 

 trema, where a sac developed for that purpose exists in 

 the skin of the back. We have already considered the 

 strange case of Pipa, which does the same thing. 



It is odd that the tree-frog, like the Irishman, keeps 

 dry during a storm of rain by getting into a pond. Of 

 course one explanation is that/the leaves get rather too 

 slippery for the frog conveniently to adhere to them. 

 It is frightfully noisy, and is possibly the frog which 



Z.G. 289 u 



