FROGS AND TOADS. 



44i 



soon absorbed ; and it appears that during development no gills are produced, 

 but that the tail, which is richly supplied with blood-vessels, acts as a breathing 

 organ. A third American genus is Oeratophrys, which includes the well-known 

 horned-frogs of Brazil and Argentina, and belongs to a group in which there 

 is no bony rod to the breast-bone, and the hind-toes are more or less fully 

 webbed. The Brazilian G. boiei is a huge creature, growing to as much as eight 

 inches in length, and furnished with a pair 

 of large horn-like outgrowths on the upper 

 eyelids. In the Argentine esquerzo (C. or- 

 nata) these processes are less developed, 

 and the whole size is less. Like its kindred, 

 furnished with an enormous mouth, this 

 species is beautifully mottled with green, 

 olive, and gold, and in this respect is really 

 a handsome creature, although its shape is 

 hideous. All the larger kinds are very fierce 

 in disposition, and carnivorous in their 

 habits, killing and eating small mammals, 

 birds, reptiles, and other members of their 

 own order. They are much dreaded by 

 the natives of the districts they inhabit, 

 who tell wonderful stories as to their fly- 

 ing at men, and even at the noses of horses 

 and cattle. Their bite is stated to produce 

 very extensive swellings. When attacking 

 a large animal, they utter a cry more like 

 a bark than anything else ; but their ordin- 

 ary note is bell-like. I once brought several 

 of these frogs in a box to Buenos Aires by rail, and during the journey the guard 

 and some of the passengers were considerably alarmed by the noises proceed- 

 ing from the cage, many of them wondering what kind of noisome beasts were 

 therein enclosed. 



Nearly allied to the preceding are the two South American genera Dendro- 

 phryniscus and Batrachophrynus, forming a small family differing from the 

 Leptodactylidce merely by the absence of teeth in the upper 

 jaw, and thus serving to connect them with the next group. Family Dendro- 



Of far more importance is the almost cosmopolitan and large phryniscidce. 

 toad family, in which teeth are absent in both jaws, while the 

 extremities of the transverse processes of the sacral vertebra are expanded. 

 That the family is closely allied to the Leptodactylidce is indi- 

 cated by the approximation of two of its genera to two of the T3ie Toads. 

 latter. Thus the Australian Pseudophryne resembles Crinia Family 



of the same country, while Enyystomops is like Paludicola, Bufonidce. 

 both these latter being South American. Again two other 

 genera exhibit resemblances to the Engystomatidce. Most of the members of 

 the family are crawling creatures, but the Javan Nectes is completely aquatic 

 in its habits, and the members of the Oriental and African genus Necto- 

 phryne appear to be arboreal. The members of Ehinophrynus which is 

 one* of the two genera approximating to the Engystomatidce feed on ants. 

 Whereas in some forms the extremities of the terminal bones of the toes are 

 simple, in others, such as Nectophryne, they are shaped like the letter T. 

 Our remarks must be restricted to the typical genus Bufo, of which there are 



Fig. 5. HORNED FROO 

 (Ceratophrys ornata). 



