270 



FROGS AND TOADS. 



for adhesion, showing the creature to be a tree-frog, it is difficult to imagine that 

 this immense membrane of the toes can be for the purpose of swimming only, and 

 the account of the Chinaman, that it flew down from the tree, becomes more 

 credible." The species referred to is the Bornean flying frog (Rhacoplwrus 

 pardalis), a member of a large genus, of which another representative (R. rein- 

 wardti), is shown in the illustration on p. 269. Of the forty-two species of 

 the genus, thirty occur in South and East Asia, and the remaining twelve in 

 Madagascar. While allied in most respects to the water-frogs, they all differ by the 



presence of a small ad- 



ditional bone between 

 the terminal and penul- 

 timate joints of the toes, 

 and likewise by the 

 penultimate joints being 

 distinctly marked exter- 

 nally as a kind of ridge ; 

 while they are further 

 mostly characterised by 

 the webbing of the toes 

 of the fore-feet, although 

 the degree to which this 

 is carried is variable. 

 The tips of the toes are 

 always expanded into 

 round discs, and very 

 generally their terminal 

 joints are forked. The 

 males are provided with 

 one or two internal vocal 

 sacs. In habits these 

 frogs are strictly 

 arboreal ; their bright 

 green coloration har- 

 monising with the 

 leaves among which 

 the}^ dwell. The larvae are remarkable for the possession of an adhesive disc 

 behind the mouth on the under surface ; while the muzzle is prolonged into a 

 proboscis, and the single breathing-pore is situated on the right side of the body, 

 nearer to the tail than to the muzzle. Writing of the habits of one of the 

 Cingalese members of the genus (formerly separated as Polypedates), in which 

 the front toes are only half- webbed, Emerson Tennent observes that it " possesses 

 in a high degree, the faculty of changing its hues ; one as green as a leaf to-day 

 will be found grey and spotted like the back to-morrow. One of these beautiful 

 little creatures, which had seated itself on the gilt pillar of a lamp on my dinner- 

 table, became in a few minutes scarcely distinguishable in colour from the ormolu 

 ornament to which it clunsr." 



VARIABLE TREE-FROGS 



