1899.] BATEACHIANS OF THE MALAT PEJaNSFLA AND STAM. 907 



the single male obtained from a field near Malacca by Cantor, and 

 specimens in the Museum at Kuala Lumper, from that place, 

 where it is said to be common. In Siam I have observed it in 

 Bangkok (Jan., May, June, July, Aug., Nov., and Dec), at Paknam 

 Menam (Aug.), at Tahkamen on the Bangpakong river (April), 

 and I have also received specimens from Chantaboon. 



Hahits. From having ]<ept many specimens in captivity for 

 months at a time, and also observed them frequently in their native 

 haunts, I think Callnla pvlchra is the cleverest batrachiaii 1 have 

 come across : they are good swimmers, can hop weW on land and 

 also climb fairly, though slowl}' ; ours in captiAity in the evening 

 often go up the glass side of their case, but they manage 

 better in a corner than on a plain vertical glass wall. During the 

 rains, when every evening swarms of insects flew into the house 

 attracted by the light and were a great annoyance at dinner-time, 

 we were in the habit of putting a Ccdlula or two on the dinner- 

 table : they seemed to understand what they were there for, and 

 instead of jumping off the table or being alarmed by us or the 

 servants, caught and ate the flying insects, one after another, as 

 they alighted on the cloth. Termites, ants, moths, small beetles, 

 crickets, and grasshoppers they devour eagerly, but the larger 

 crickets and grasshoppers they cannot manage to hold to get them 

 into their small mouths ; they seem more clever in catching their 

 desired prey than either Bana or Bvfo, and also show curious 

 discrimination in not attempting to seize the winged bugs, which 

 often come into the house at the same time as the swarms of ants, 

 termites, &c. 



During the rainy season in Bangkok almost every evening, after a 

 wet day, the whole air is full of the booming of these frogs — "eung- 

 ahng, eung-ahug, eung-abng," now rising, now falling, and the 

 sound continues all night. In some of the roads where there is low 

 land and much water on each side, and Callula swarms, you can 

 hardly hear yourself speak for the noise, but at the distance of a 

 quarter or half a mile the sound is not unpleasant and is like that 

 of a great weir or waterfall. In Singapore possibly they croak on 

 suitable evenings all the year round ; personally I have noted them 

 doing so in the months of March, April, May, June, July, Sep- 

 tember, October, and December. In captivity they continue to 

 make their characteristic sound; also apparently they can make a 

 quite different noise : on more than one occasion we were disturbed 

 at night in Bangkok by shriU screams apparently of a person 

 in great fear and pain ; the noise seemed to come from the room 

 where the Ccdlula were kept, but on procuriug a light and going 

 there, I found them sitting quietly in their Aivarium as if nothing 

 had occurred, so it cannot be proved that the}^ were the authors 

 of these really alarming cries^ 



' Our knowledge of the strange cries that animals make at times must still 

 be very meagre. Various noises occurred from time to time in the old ruinous 

 palace I lived in at Bangkok that 1 did not succeed in tracing : the natives (as 

 usual) attributed them to the supernatural, but I have no doubt they vFere 



