BATRACHIANS. 69 



the tympanum is concealed under the skin*. They are all from South 

 America. 



Southern Africa produces Batrachians resembling Frogs in their teeth 

 and smooth skin ; their toes are pointed, the hind ones broadly palmated, 

 and the extremities of the three internal ones enveloped in a black, conical, 

 horny nail; their head is small and their mouth moderate; the tongue, at- 

 tached to the lower part of the gullet, is oblong, fleshy, and very large ; 

 their tympanum is not visible. These numerous characters have induced 

 us to form a genus for them by the name of Dactylethraj. 



Hyla, Laur. — Calamita, Schn. and Merr. 



Tree-Frogs only differ from the true Frogs in the extremities of their 

 toes, each of which is expanded into a rounded viscous pellet, that enables 

 them to adhere to the surface of bodies and to climb trees, where in fact 

 they remain all the summer living upon insects. They spawn, however, in 

 water, and enter the mud in winter like other Frogs. There is a pouch 

 under the throat of the male, which dilates whenever he cries. 



Rana arborea, L. ; Rces. Ran. pi. ix, x, xi. (The Common Tree- 

 Frog). Green above, pale beneath; a black and yellow line along 

 each side of the body. They are adult in four years, and couple to- 

 wards the end of April. The Tadpole completes its metamorphosis 

 in the month of August. 



The Hyla? foreign to Europe are numerous, and some of them beauti- 

 ful. One of the largest and handsomest is 



H. bicolor, Daud. VIII; and Spix, XIII. Sky-blue above, rose 

 colour beneath. From South America. A still larger species, 



H. palmata, Daud. XX; Rana maxima, L., is transversely and 

 irregularly striped with red and fawn-colour. From North Ame- 

 rica J. 



On account of the singular property attributed to it we may mention the 

 Rana tinctoria, L. (The Stained Tree Frog). It is said, that, if 

 some of the feathers of a Parrot be plucked out and the skin be im- 

 bued with the blood of this animal, it causes a reproduction of red 

 or yellow feathers, and forms that peculiar appearance which is termed 



* Ceratophris granosa, Cuv., one of those Frogs with a concealed tympanum, of 

 which Gravenhorst has made his genus Stombus; but they have teeth like the others, 

 and should not lie approximated to the Toads, where Fitzinger has placed them. 



f From the Greek word daktulethra (thimble): such is the form of their nails. 

 The Crapaud lisse, Daud. pi. xxx, f. 1, is a bad figure, the hind feet being altogether 

 wrong; it forms the Pi pa leevis, Merr. The Pi pa bufonia, Merr., or pretended male 

 Pipa, Enl. No. 21, f. 2, is also the same species, but drawn without nails. These spe- 

 cies of Merrem constitute the Engystoma of Fitzinger, but the true Engystomae or 

 the Breviceps, Merr., have neither teeth nor nails. 



X Add, of palmated species, Hyl. venulosa, Daud. XIX, or Cal. loans, Merr., Seb. 

 1, lxxii; — H. tibicen, Seb. lb. 1, 2, 3; — II. marmorata, Seb. I, lxxi, 4, 5; Daud. 

 XVIII;— H. lateralis, Catesb. II, lxxi, Daud. 11;—//. bilineata, Daud. III;—//. 

 verrucosa; — //. oculala; — H. frontalis, Id., and in Spix; Hyl. bvfonia, XII; — //. geo- 

 grafica, XI, 1; — //. albomarginata, VIII, 2; — II. papillaris, 2;—//. partialis, 3; — //. 

 cinerascens, 4;—//. affinis, VII, 3. 



