BATKACHIA. 81 



line along each side of the body. They are adult in four years, 

 and couple towards the end of April. The tadpole completes 

 its metamorphosis in the month of August. 

 The Hylae foreign to Europe are numerous, and some of them 

 beautiful. One of the largest and handsomest. is 



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

 rose-colour beneath. From South America. A still larger 

 species, 



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

 irregularly striped with red and fawn-colour. From North 

 America.(l) 



On account of the singular property attributed to it we may 

 mention the Ba/ia tinctoria, L. It is said that if some of the 

 feathers of a Parrot be plucked out and the skin be imbued with 

 the blood of this animal, it causes a reproduction of red or yel- 

 low feathers, and forms that peculiar appearance which is 

 termed by the French tapire. We are assured it is a brown 

 species, with two whitish bands transversely united in two 

 places (Daud. pj. viii); the toes of the hind feet are almost 

 free. (2) 



BuFo, Laur. 

 Toads have a thick, bulky body covered with warts or papillae; a 

 thick lump behind the ears pierced with pores, from which issues a 

 milky and fetid humour; no teeth; the hind feet but slightly elon- 

 gated. They leap badly, and generally avoid the water. They are 

 hideous and disgusting animals, whose bite, saliva, urine, Sec, ar© 

 considered, though erroneously, as poisonous. 



Ranabufo, L. ;Ross. Ran. XX. (The Common Toad.) Red- 

 dish-grey, or grey-brown; sometimes olive or blackish; the back 

 covered with rounded tubercles as large as lentils; smaller and 



(1) Add, of palmated species, Hyl. venulosa, Daud., XIX, or €al. boans, Merr. 

 Seb., I, Ixxii; — H. tibicen, Seb. lb. 1, 2, 3; — H. marmorata, Seb. I, Ixxi, 4, 5, 

 Daud. XVIII; — H. lateralis, Catesb. II, Ixxi, Daud., II; — H. bilineata, Daud. Ill; — 

 H. verrucosa; — H. oculata; — H. frontalis. Id. and in Spix; Hyl. bufonia, XII; — H. 

 geografica, XI, 1; — H. albomarginaia, YllI, 2; — H. papillaris, 2; — H. pardalis, 3; — 

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



(2) Add of species whose hind toes are but slightly palmate, II. femoralis, Daud. 

 IV; — H. squirella, Daud. V; — H. trivittata, kc. Spix, IX; — H. abbreviata, Id. XI, 4. 

 [Add H. delitescens, L. C. and H. versicolor, Id. loc. cit. ^m. Ed.] 



The Hyla cyanea, Daud. of New Holland, according' to White, p. 248, has but 

 four toes behind, and M. Fitzinger, who appears to have seen it, has consequently 

 formed it into his genus Calamita. We have one from the same co^mtry, and 

 exactly similar, which certainly has five. 

 Vol. II.— L 



