MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 687 



No. XXXVII.— THE DIET OF A BULL-FROG {RAN A TIGRINA). 



In Vol. XX., No. 3 of our Journal, Mr. H. M. Chibber has a short note 

 on the diet of a bull- frog, Rana tiffrina. I wish to supplement the in- 

 formation he has given by some facts from my observation. In the course 

 of a dissection of one of these animals, my students observed, in the 

 earlier part of September, the remains of a land-crab in the stomach. 

 The abdomen of the crab had already been digested, but the great 

 chselse and carapace were found inside the stomach. My mother also 

 tells me that she has frequently observed frogs eating land-crabs in the 

 paddy fields during the rains. 



My friend Dr. V. G. Chiplunkar of Baroda informs me that he has once 

 observed one of these frogs swallow a green snake of about medium size. 

 The frog first caught its head in its mouth and then gradually swallowed 

 it. He was unable to say anything about the species of the snake as it 

 escaped in water before it could be secured. It seems, therefore, that the 

 dietary of a bull-frog contains a very large variety of animals, and further 

 observations on this point by our members would yield interesting results. 



S.P. AGHARKAR. 



Bombay, Is/ October 1911. 



No. XXXVIII.— NOTES ON THE INDIAN CHAMELEON 

 {CSAMJELEON CALCARATUS). 



I send the following notes on two Chameeleons kept in captivity by me. 



The first, which was subsequently seen to be a female, was found near 

 Jubbulpore, O.P., and after some months of close captivity in a wire cage, 

 was bought by me on 16th September 1911. Her colour was, as a rule, 

 green of varying shades. In the bright sun, she rapidly turned a very dark 

 earth colour, at night, a light greenish yellow. If angry, she would come 

 out in thick black spots as large as small peas. Length about 13 inches. 

 She lived then, on my office punkah ropes and ate large numbers of grass- 

 hoppers and very small frogs, of which latter she once devoured 8 m suc- 

 cession. Her gymnastic powers were extraordinary. To reach an insect 

 out of range of her tongue, on another rope of the punkah, she would do 

 what in gymnastic terms is called a " plant," viz., extend her body into 

 space, at right angles to the rope which she gripped with her tail and hind 

 legs. This would extend her range considerably, but, if still not close 

 enough to her prey, she would slide down the rope in stealthy jerks, still 

 holding on by her tail and hind legs, until, as the two ropes converged she 

 was near enough to shoot. Range of tongue, at the most, about 9 inches. 

 Given a walk in the garden every day, she would make repeated efforts to 

 escape, and invariably in the same direction, viz., to a " mendi " hedge. 

 Having reached the top of this, along it some 10 feet to where a twig of a 

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