TREE-FROGS 369 



fully agile frogs, who every now and then lift up 

 their heads and pour forth a torrent of small, sweet 

 notes. The process of discovery is by no means 

 an easy one, as the animals are very small, and 

 provided with highly protective colouring, and also 

 because their notes seem to alter in direction at 

 frequent intervals in a curiously ventriloquial way. 

 The little tree-frogs, Rhacophorus maculatus 

 (Plate XXI.), are not very common in Calcutta, 

 but occasionally a garden will be found in which 

 the local conditions are so much to their taste as to 

 lead to the presence of a large colony within its 

 limits. Now and then, too, a frog will come explor- 

 ing into a house and go hopping around over the 

 floors and furniture ; but such an event is rare, and 

 they never show any inclination to establish them- 

 selves as permanent inmates. In many parts of 

 Southern India, however, they are almost as common 

 in houses as the wall-geckos, and indeed, owe their 

 common Anglo-Indian name of " Chunam-frogs " to 

 the way in which, on any alarm, they make off in 

 a series of rapid leaps across the floor to spring up 

 and remain adherent to the whitewash of the walls 

 at a considerable height above the ground. 



2 A 



