1895.] OF SOMB TREE-rBOGS OF BliAZIl, 9o 



below our bed-room ; the voice is much louder than that of Hyla 

 polijtmnia. I had hoped to succeed in bringing up the remaining 

 part of the young Tree-Frogs. But they died one after the other 

 in a few days, without my being able to assign any cause for this 

 mortality. Thus my study unfortunately soon came to an end. 



The first author who, as I believe, noted that the Bromelia- 

 water often contains larvfe of Brazilian Batrachians was Prince 

 Maximilian. Thus he writes about his Hyla lateola : — "Er lebt 

 auf den G-estrauchen, besonders auf den stiefen Bliittern der 

 Bromelien, wo er auch in dem daselbst zuriickbleibenden Regen- 

 wasser seine Brut anbringt." But he tells us nothing about the 

 abridged direct development. This discovery is due, I find by 

 reference to what literature ' is accessible to me, to Dr. Bello in 

 Puertorico. Peters, of Berlin, states, in 1876 -, that Dr. Gundlach 

 re-discovered the fact, having made thorough observations on the 

 Antillean " Coqui " (Hi/lodes martiniceiisis). Unfortunately I have 

 nothing to add to these statements, now already 20 years old, beyond 

 the circumstance that not only in the Antillean region, but also in 

 the South- American continent, there exist Batrachians which leave 



Hyla yoeldi, with egg-mass on back. (' Nature,' six. p. 463.) 



the egg in a highly developed condition, provided with the 

 extremities and the other requisites for terrestrial life. I find, 

 moreover, I cannot lay claim to the first discovery of the breeding- 

 habits of the above mentioned Hyla. On looking through souie 

 old papers left by Dr. Pritz Miiller, I recently came across some 

 notes and a photograph, which evidently refer to the same facts. 

 Mr. Boulenger, to whom I submitted these documents, informs 

 me that Dr. Fritz Miiller's observations, communicated by him 

 to Darwin, were published in 1879 in the journal 'Nature' 



' See, on this subjeot especially, F. K. Knauer, ' Naturgesc-hiehte der 

 Lurche ' (Wien, 1878), p. 83 seq. ; and Mr. Boulenger, Ann. & Mag. N. H. 

 ser. 5, svii. p. 464. 



- " Ueber eine von Krug und Gundlach auf der Insel Puertorico gemachte 

 Sammlung von Amphibien, sowie iiber die Entwickluug eines Batraohiers, 

 Hylodes martinicensis." Monatsb. d. k. Akad. Wissensch. Berlin, November 

 1876. (Quoted from Knauer.) 



