404' Jrn.. f. e. beddaru on tiie an^ atomy 



II. Further Notes upon the Genus Bkevjceps. 



Nearly three years ago I communica,ted to the Society some 

 notes upon the anatomy of an African Frog belonging to tlie 

 genus Breviceps, which I identified with the species B. verrucosus*. 

 I am now of opinion that three Frogs upon which I reported on 

 that occasion are not to be referred to this species, which I have 

 lately examined. The specimens of Breviceps verrucosus and of 

 B. gibbosus, which were exhibited at the Society's Gardens some 

 years since, and of which several have been preserved in alcohol, 

 are distinctly diiierent from those to which I had devoted my 

 attention in the paper already quoted. They are much more 

 spherical in outline, agreeing with a published figure of B. verru- 

 cosus t and of B. mossambicusX- The examples formerly studied 

 by myself were much longer in proportion and of a squarer ovit- 

 line. Furthermore, the examples of £. verriocosus a,nd B. gibbosus 

 in the possession of the Society are more tubercular upon the 

 surface of the body. I am, however, quite unable to suggest the 

 species to which the specimens dissected by myself in 1908 are to 

 be referred. I cannot at any rate refer them to Mr. Boulenger's 

 recently described Breviceps macrops §, for that species is abnormal 

 (for Breviceps, though more normal when compared to other Fx-ogs) 

 by reason of the relatively large head and eyes. Breviceps pentheri 

 of Werner || is quite too small a species to be confused wdth that 

 to which I now refer, although the latter is considerably smaller 

 than either B. verrucosus or B. gibbosus. The latter ai'e hard to 

 separate, as Mr. Boulenger has pointed out. A sixth species, 

 B. adspersus %, appears to me to be too briefly described to permit 

 of its identification with either the species with which I am now, 

 or that with which I was, concerned. 



The present contribution to our knowledge of this genus 

 Brevicep)S is based upon the examination of four examples given 

 to me by Mr. Purcell, who was so good as to have them collected 

 in the Cape Colony. These seem to me to belong either to 

 B. gibbosus or B. verrucostis, wdiich I cannot differentiate to my 

 own satisfaction and which are in any case very closely allied. 

 Through the kindness of Mr. Purcell they were very well pre- 

 served for dissection purposes, and I am thus able to add some- 

 thing to the existing knowledge of Breviceps. I have already 

 mentioned a few external difl:erences between the present species . 

 and those which I dissected in 1907. I shall point out in the 

 coui'se of the following pages certain anatomical diflifirences 



* Rapp. Arch. f. Nat. 1842. p. 291. 



t Steindachner, Reise der Novava, Ampbibien, Wien, 1867, pi. v. fig. 3. 



X Peters, Reise nach Mossambiqvie, Araphibieii, Berlin, 1882, pi. xxv. tip:. 2. 



§ Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. xx. 1907, p. 46. Mr. lioulenger remarks that, 

 "Unlike JB. qihhnsus, B. macrops does not cover itself with a viscous secretion wbeii 

 alarmed." Tbe species upon vifhich I report in the present paper showed in one indi- 

 vidual a thick mass of secretion on the body. 



II Zool. Anz. xxii. 1899, p. 116 ; tbe species is 15 ram. long. 



^ Peters, Reise nach Mossambiqne, Ampbibien, I^erlin, 1882. 



