TREE FROGS. 



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The second group of the Batrachians with tongues consists of the DISCODACTYLES, which have 

 the tips of their large digits furnished with adhesive discs. They are usually called TREE FROGS, and 

 the first family is the HYLORAX.E. 



The Hyloranse are interesting Frogs because, whilst the form of the head and body and 

 the length of the limbs are very similar to those of the genus Kana, the more or less dilated extremi- 

 ties of the toes indicate a semi-arboreal life. These half True Frogs and half Tree Frogs are powerful 

 leapers, and they inhabit Ceylon, the Philippines, and Archipelago, Western Polynesia, Madagascar, 

 and West Africa. There is even a species from New Guinea. 



The HYLID.E, the next family, have the extremity of their digits enlarged, rounded, and 

 fashioned into a disc which is more or less sticky. They fix themselves to objects, and climb trees 



ELEGANT HYLA. 



with the aid of the discs. Living on trees during the summer, hunting insects amongst the leaves 

 and boughs, some seek the water to lay their eggs and hibernate in the mud during the winter, and 

 others lay in. collections of water in the trunks of trees, and in the branches. The male has a vocal 

 pouch which he swells out when he croaks. 



The Common Hyla* of Europe is green, with a yellow and black line along the body, and is paler 

 in tint beneath. It lays when it has attained the age of four years. The head has a soft skin, and it 

 has, in common with the family, maxillary teeth, but no parotids. It has a large vocal sac (the male), 

 and when in shrubs and green trees it can hardly be distinguished by its similarity of tinting. It has 

 an immense distribution in Europe, and Giinther states that in Southern China and in Formosa there 

 is a Hyla which closely resembles the European form. 



The genus is, Avith this exception, absent in India and Tropical Africa. 



Central America has a lovely Tree Frog which is sky-blue on the back and rose-coloured beneath, 

 and the North American Goose-footed Hyla, a large kind, is cross-barred irregularly with red and 

 fawn tints. 



The South American Tree Frogs are numerous, and some have fine noisy voices. One from 

 Guiana and Brazil has a red-brown upper surface, yellow- white sides, and there is a curiously- shaped 



* Hyla arborea. 



