912 ME. STANLEY S. PLOWEB ON THE [NoV. 14, 



Distribution. Malay Peninsula (Perak and Malacca), Sumatra, 

 Borneo. 



N.B.— Mr. L. Wray (Perak Museum Notes, vol. ii. part ii. 

 p. 135) credits me with having presented the Museum at Taiping 

 with a toad of this species from Penang ; the toad in question, 

 however, was a specimen of B. asper. 



42. Btrro divebgens Peters. 



Mr. A. L. Butler informs me he has obtained this species in 

 Salangor during the latter half of 1898 ; it had not previously been 

 recorded from the Malay Peninsula. 



Distribution. Malay Peninsula. 



43. Btrro aspbe Gravenh. 



Bufo asper, Blgr. Cat. Batr. Sal. p. 313 ; S. Flower, P. Z. S. 

 1896, p. 912. 



This is the grandest batrachian known to inhabit the Malay 

 Peninsula, and interesting in many ways : its size, rugged coat, and 

 prominent yellow eyes at once attract attention ; its muscular 

 strength is unusually great for an animal of this class ; the strong 

 scent of musk it gives out when excited or alarmed is remarkable ; 

 its habit of pretending to be dead is very curious ; and, lastly, its 

 motive for frequenting only particular caves and waterfalls would 

 be most interesting to work out. 



For this reason I give each place and date on which I have met 

 the species : — 



Great Waterfall, Botanical Gdns., Penang : 24.3.95 ; four. 



30.3.95 ; two ( d d ). 

 24.4.26; three (?.) 



8.3.98; two. 

 14.6.98; one. 





On 1st Jan., 1896, I searched this place without seeing a single 

 toad. 



Penang Hill, elevation about 2000 feet ; 26th November, 1896, 

 one individual. 



Penang Hill, elevation about 2000 feet ; April 1898, three indi- 

 viduals. 



Batu Caves, Selangor, 28th and 30th June, 1898. In the 

 dark part of these caves there were numbers of B. asper; on 

 the 28th I saw about twenty individuals, some were several 

 hundred yards underground (perhaps half a mile) and in places 

 where no daylight could ever penetrate. All the toads seen in the 

 caves were well-grown specimens, apparently adult ; their rugged 

 backs and colour exactly match many of the rocks in the caves. 

 The excrement of these toads contained wings of small beetles and 

 cockroaches. 



