346 THE BATRACHIANS OF EGYPT. 
General colour varying from bright green, blue, or olive to uniform brown ; spotted 
or marbled with olive-brown or blackish, sometimes forming longitudinal bands on 
the back ; usually three pale dorsal stripes ; limbs spotted or barred with olive-brown 
or blackish, the hinder sides of the thighs marbled with blackish, sometimes with bright 
yellow or orange ; occasionally a pale line along the inside of the tibia near the upper 
surface ; vocal sacs coloured grey to white. 
Mr. Boulenger, who has so largely contributed to our knowledge of the races of this 
species of frog, recognizes four, viz. ridibunda 1 , typica, lessonce, and nigromaculata. 
The first-mentioned variety, to which the frogs of North Africa are referable 2 , is 
distinguished from the typical form by the smaller size of its inner metatarsal tubercle, 
and by its proportionally longer tibia?, this latter character sufficing to separate it from 
all the other races. It has generally a green vertebral line. It attains to a great size 
in Germany, females from snout to vent measuring 104 mm., and males 98 mm.; but 
the Algerian frogs are not much smaller, as in the British Museum there is a female 
from Biskra 96 mm. in length. 
It is distributed over Europe (with the exception of North-western and Central 
Italy), Western Asia as far east as Eastern Turkestan, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan, 
and over Northern Africa from Egypt to the coast of Morocco (Casa Blanca), and 
extends to the island of Madeira. In the Algerian region it is found in the Sahara as 
far south as Wargla. 
Hitherto only one specimen has been recorded from Egypt. It was mentioned by 
F. Miiller so long ago as 1882 3 , but I am indebted to Mr. Boulenger for the 
information that the British Museum lately came into the possession of one individual 
obtained at Alexandria by the late M. Letourneux. It is a small male, 56 mm. from 
snout to vent. The snout is rather broadly rounded, compared with some specimens 
from Algeria. It is of a brownish-olive colour, and the dark spots are rather obscure. 
Rana mascareniensis, Dum. & Bibr. (Plate L. fig. 1.) 
Grenouille verte, var., Audouin, Descr. de FEgypte, Hist. Nat. i. ? 1829, p. 182, Suppl. Kept. pi. ii. 
figS. 111-113. 
Grenouille verte, var. a dos blanc, Audouin, op. cit. p. 182, pi. ii. figs. 12 i & 12 2. 
Rana esculenta, var., Linn., Audouin, op. cit. p. 182. 
Rana mascareniensis, Dum. & Bibr. viii. 1841, p, 350; Bell, Zool. Beagle, Rept. 1843, p. 32, pi. vi. 
fig. 2; Gimther, Cat. Batr. Sal. B. M. 1858, p. 18; Peters, Mon. Berl. Ak. 1866, p. 891; 
' Rana ridibunda, Pallas, Reise, i. 1771, p. 458 ; Blgr. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1S85, p. 666, pi. xl. 
1 Proc. Zool. Soo. 1891, p. 374 ; conf. Bedriaga, Bull. Soc. Moso. 1889, p. 242, who recognized five races, 
as he considered the Spanish-North-African frogs to merit subspecific rank. 
3 Verb. nat. Ges. Basel, vii. 1882, p. 129. 
