108 RANAD^E. 



my power respecting it; and on writing to Sir William 

 Jardine upon the subject, I obtained from him, with his 

 accustomed kindness and liberality, the opportunity of 

 examining the identical skeleton upon which Dr. Starts 

 notices were made. My excellent friend Bibron also 

 kindly sent me several specimens of the true R. esculenta, 

 and from these data I came to the conclusion that the Scot- 

 tish Frog is a new species, to which, from its only known 

 locality I gave the name of R. Scotica. During the last 

 spring, however, I received, from Mr. Wolley of Edin- 

 burgh, numerous specimens of both sexes, and of various 

 ages of the Scottish Frog, and the result of the most care- 

 ful examination and comparison which I am able to make, 

 is the conviction that it is nothing more than a very large 

 variety of the Common Frog, R. temporaria. My friend, 

 Mr. Gray, whose accurate and extensive knowledge of 

 these subjects, gives great weight to his opinion, and 

 Mr. Wing, also of the British Museum, a most acute 

 and intelligent observer, have confirmed this opinion ; and 

 it appears to us that the slight differences which I ob- 

 served in the osteology, might have been sexual or even 

 merely accidental. I am much indebted to Mr. Wolley 

 for his great kindness in enabling me, by a plentiful supply 

 of specimens, to determine this point, as well as for other 

 similar attentions which I shall have another opportunity 

 of acknowledging.* 



The specimens were obtained on the Braid Hills, where 

 these large Frogs are very numerous. 



I give in a vignette the crania of the two varieties of 

 R. temporaria^ and of the R. esculenta ; and the great 



* M. Bibron has expressed his doubts whether the JR. Scotica may not be 

 considered as identical with the common species. Hist. Nat. des Kept. t. 

 viii. p. 362. 



