Frogs and Toads 



603 



The TKEE-FROGS represent one of the most distinct 



groups of the tribe. All its members are more or less 



arboreal in their habits, repairing to the water only 



during the breeding-season, or leaving the trees to seek 



shelter in the earth or underneath stones or timber for 



the purposes of hibernation. As an adaptation for their 



special habits, the toes of the tree-frogs are provided 



at their tips with suctorial disks, so that they can walk 



on perpendicular or smoothly glazed surfaces after the 



manner of the Geckos among the Lizards. Another 



characteristic feature is the development on the under 



surface of their bodies of peculiar granular glands pierced 



by numerous pores, through the medium of which they 



rapidly absorb the moisture deposited by dew or rain 



on the surfaces of the leaves among which they live. 



The colours of the tree-frogs harmonise, as a rule, so 



completely with those of their leafy environments that 



their presence very readily escapes detection. Many of 



the species, moreover, rival the chameleon in their 



capacity of quickly adapting their tints to that of a 



newly occupied surrounding. Green is naturally the 



dominant ground-tint of these frogs. Often, however, 



it is intermixed with stripes and bands of other colours, 



while sometimes the green hue is entirely replaced, as 



in the BLUE or BICOLOURED TREE-FROG of South America, 



which is brilliant azure above and pure white beneath. 



A very beautiful Australian species, abundant in Tasmania 



and Victoria, and appropriately named the GOLDEN TREE- 

 FROG, has its grass-green overcoat thickly overlaid and 



embroidered with, as it were, the purest beaten gold. 

 One small species of tree-frog is common on the 



European Continent, its distribution extending to North 



Africa and eastward throughout Asia north of the Himalaya to Japan. The species is 



imported into England in considerable numbers, and readily becomes acclimatised in a conserva- 

 tory. Green above and whitish 

 beneath constitute the prevailing 

 tints of this species, such uni- 

 formity being, however, varied by 

 the presence of a darker, often 

 nearly black, light-edged streak, 

 that extends from the snout through 

 the eye and ear along each side 

 of the body, and sends a branch 

 upwards and forwards on the loins. 

 The male of this European species 

 shares with many others of its 

 tribe the possession of a large 

 external vocal sac, which when 

 inflated bulges out from the throat 



y ii. G. F. spun-eii, j&ft.] [Eastbourne. in a spherical form to dimen- 



COMMON TOAD. sions little inferior to those of 



Toads are accredited with attaining an age of several hundred years. the Creature's body. It may be 



Photo I 



jj W. Savillc-Kcnt, F.Z.S., Mil ford-on- Sea. 

 QUEENSLAND TREE-FROGS. 



This species is in the habit of making itself at home 

 in chamber water-jugs. 



