1891.] TADPOLES OF THE EUROPEAN BATRACHIANS. 607 



of the muscular portion, at its base, about one third the greatest 

 total depth. 



Beak broadly edged with black. Sides and lower edge of the 

 lip bordered with papillae ; upper lip with a long series of teeth, 

 followed on each side by two or three series, which are widely 

 separated from their fellows on the other side and gradually 

 decrease in length ; four series of teeth in the lower lip, the fourth 

 or inner widely interrupted in the middle, the first or outer at least 

 two thirds the length of the secoud. Heron Royer (Bull. Ac. Belg. 

 3, i. 1881, p. 139) regards the specimens with three series of teeth 

 in the upper lip as representing a distinct subspecies {honnorati, 

 H. R.), but Born (Arch. f. mikr. Anat. xxvii. 1886, p. 209) and 

 Camerano (Atti Ace. Torin. xxvi. 1890, p. 82) have shown that 

 specimens with three or four series are found promiscuously in 

 Germany and in the Alps. I may add that British specimens have 

 usually only three series of upper labial teeth. 



Muciferous crypts very indistinct. 



Dark brown to blackish above, with metallic dots ; caudal crests 

 greyish, uniform, or dotted or powdered with brown, with or without 

 small golden spots ; belly grey to blackish with metallic dots or 

 spots. 



The largest specimen from the environs of London measures 

 37 millira. : body 13, width of body 9; tail 24, depth of tail 7. 

 Camerano (/. c.) records specimens 46 millim. long. 



Rana temforaria inhabits Central and Northern Europe (where 

 it is still found in abundance as far as the North Cape and Lapland^), 

 the Pyrenees, the hills of North-western Spain, and the Italian Alps, 

 Siberia and Yesso. 



It breeds, in the plains of Central Europe, from the beginning of 

 February to the beginning of April, and the young leave the water 

 in May or June. In the Alps, where this species is found as high 

 up as 10,000 feet, the metamorphosis may not be completed until 

 late in the summer, and cases of hibernation in the larval condition 

 are frequent (Camerano, Atti Ace. Torin. xix. 1883, p. 86, and Boll. 

 Mus. Torin. 1887, no. 30, and 1889, no. 56), 



4. Rana gr^ca, Blgr. (Plate XLV. fig. 4.) 



This tadpole, although more nearly resembling that of R. tem- 

 poraria than any other European species, differs from all its congeners 

 in having the mouth quite as wide as the interorbital space, which 

 equals once and a half the distance between the nostrils. The labial 

 dentition is more developed even than in R. temporaria, the teeth 



' A note by G-aimard (Bibl. Uuiv. 2, xxvi. 1840, p. 207) bas been interpreted 

 by some authors as indicating the presence of Frogs in Iceland. Gaimard 

 states that he made experiments in Iceland on the endurance of cold on three 

 Batrachians, viz. Rana temporcir'm, Bufo vulgaris, and Bufo aalamita, but does 

 not actually say that he j^rocured the specimens on that island, although, from 

 the wording of his note, it would be quite natural to infer he did. But neither 

 the list of Iceland animals given by Mohr (Fors. Isl. Naturh., Copenhagen, 1786) 

 nor that published by E. Hobert in Gaimard's Voyage (Voy. eu Islande et au 

 G-roenl., Zool. et Med., Paris, 18-51) contains any allusion to Batrachians. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1891, No. XLI. 41 



