94 DR. EMIL A. GOELDI OX THE BREEDIXG-HABITS [Feb. 5, 



be collected on tbe same nocturual excursion. The voice is aa 

 acute " gr-gr-gr ....," tolerably melodious, resembling somewhat 

 the chirping of certain small birds, the wren for instance. 



I have likewise some observations on the life-history of this 

 Batrachian. But I shall be brief on this subject, limiting myself 

 to essential points. Hijla polytcenia makes no nui'sery-pools for 

 its offspring. It deposits its eggs in free lumpy masses on water- 

 plants. I have a photograph taken by my cousin in the beginning 

 of this year, showing such masses attached to a branch of a 

 species of Tradescantia, taken from the margin of the same pond 

 as mentioned above. My cousin informs me that the tadpoles 

 have a remarkably slow development, and supposes that the larval 

 condition lasts a whole year, 



3. Htla goeldii, Boulenger. 



At Colouia Alpina we discovered in the water which, as is well 

 known, is present in the central cup of certain Bromeliacete 

 (Bilhergia, &c.) another pretty Tree-Frog. I could not determine 

 it, even with the help of Mr. Boulenger's ' Catalogue ' (pubhshed 

 in 1882), though it is a very distinct and characteristic species. 

 Alive it is of a greenish-grey colour, with a violin-shaped dark 

 figure on the anterior half of the dorsal median line and large 

 transverse bars on the hind legs. 



The first specimen found was a female, carrying on her back a 

 lumpy mass of about 10 large, globular, whitish eggs. This fact 

 was sufficient to attract my attention, guessing that I was on the 

 track of a similar case as observed formerly by Bello, Gundlach, 

 and Bavay on the " Coqui " (Hylodes martinicensis) of the West 

 Indies. The specimen was put in a large glass, fitted up rapidly 

 to a tolerably habitable vivarium. For a few days the egg-mass 

 remained attached to the mother's back. But suddenly it fell away 

 and simultaneously I saw in the glass some small, nearly black- 

 coloured frogs, all provided with the anterior and posterior legs, 

 together with a larval tail of medium or rather small size. These 

 young exhibited, from the first moment, a quite unexpected agiUty 

 •and independence, jumping about perfectly well and showing 

 marked preference to stick to the glass walls and to the surfaces of 

 the stones rather than to remain in the water. Part of them I put 

 in a tube with akoholj which I sent to Mr. Boulenger, together 

 with the mother, while a second, larger specimen, obtained some 

 days afterwards and found in a dry bamboo, very near the locality 

 of the mentioned Bromelia, went to London, via Paris, in order to 

 enable my friend Dr. Trouessart to study in situ some psoric 

 Acarids (larvse of a species of Troinhidium), visible as crimson 

 points on the abdominal side. The discovery of this second 

 specimen was due to the strong sibilance ^ emitted every night just 



1 In 1886 (Ann. & Mag. N. H. ser. 5, xvii. p. 462) Dr. H. von Ihering wrote 

 about the voice of Phyllomedusa iheringii : — " Their moderately loud voice 

 resembles somewhat the sound produced by running tbe finger-nail along a 

 thick hair-comb." 



