368 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



a rudimentary membrane, and the others are partly webbed, the third and fourth having conspicuous 

 tubercles. The toes are nearly full-webbed, and the discs are smaller than those of the fingers, 

 This very pretty polychromatic Frog is not unlike a Rhacophorus, but the incomplete webs on the 

 hands are distinctive. 



The last family to be noticed, the Dendrobaiidse, has genera whose species have no maxillary 



teeth and no parotids. The figure is 

 very Toad-like, and there are not webs 

 uniting either digits or toes, but they 

 have all these dilated at the tips. There 

 is no expansion cf the processes of the 

 sacral vertebne. The species of the 

 genus Dendrobates live on trees and 

 bushes, and the best known is from 

 Cayenne and Brazil. It* is , c :aid to 

 have a very remarkable power cf tint- 

 ing, and its blood, when applied to 

 the wounds of green Parrakeets from 

 which the feathers have been torn, is 

 said to produce a red or yellow colour 

 in the new plumage ! The males have 

 a throat sac. In all the tongue is rib- 

 bon-shaped, and much of it is free. 

 They are usually black, with a white 

 splash on the head, which is extended 

 in a radiating manner over the eye ; 

 another is across the loins, and there 

 are white branchings on the shoulder. 



A little Frog two inches in length 

 inhabits the country to the east and 

 north-east of the Cape Colony, and Dr. 

 Andrew Smith states that specimens 

 are usually found in or about cavities 

 which exist in the trunks of trees. 

 When got out of the holes they appeared 

 inanimate, but the influence of a warm 

 sun soon imparted a moderate degree of 

 vigour to them, and in a few hours 

 after their liberation they were tolerably 

 active and able to move from place to 

 place. In one instance five specimens 



were found by a workman (unfortunately not by Dr. A. Smith) in the middle of a tree 

 nineteen inches in diameter, and no hole led to the outside. It is called Brachymerus bifasciatus, 

 and its dark body has a pretty yellow line on each flank, with spots on the limbs. The jaws and 

 palate are without teeth. There are no parotids, and four of the digits and the five toes are free, 

 but the tips are dilated. It probably belongs to this family. 



The genus Plectropus probably belongs to this family, but the sacral transverse process is 

 enlarged, and there are no discs to the fingers or toes. Moreover, four fingers are free from web, 

 and the five toes are palmate. The Painted Plectropus, f of a brown ground tint, relieved with 

 a marbling of black spots, is from Manilla. 



* Dendrobates tinctoria. + Plectropus pictus=CaUula picta, 



IHYLLOMEDUSA BICOLOR. 



