874 MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON THE [NoV, 26, 



complete enclosure of the respiratory organs in their own coelomic 

 chamber. 



§ Shoulder-girdle. 



The shoulder- girdle of my example of Megalophrys inontana 

 agrees generally with W. K. Parker's * figure of the same. But 

 there are differences to be recorded. The right coracoids overlap 

 the left considerably more than they are represented to do in 

 Parker's figure, and more than is the case with Megalophrys 

 oiasiUa according to my own observations. The thin edge of the 

 cartilage in question quite covers the pectoral muscles of the 

 left side at their origin, which can be seen through the thin 

 transparent blade of cartilage. The omosternum may be, perhaps, 

 rather larger than Prof. Parker has figured, but it is distinctly 

 more rudimentary than in Megcdophrys nasuta, where it is calcified 

 and has a more distinctly Rana-YikQ form. However, slips of the 

 muscular system of the shoulder are attached even to this flat and 

 very thin omosternum in Megcdophrys montana. 



The sternum of the example of Megalophrys montana which I 

 have examined does not agree in every detail with the figure by 

 Parker of the same species. The bony style of which the sternum 

 mainly consists is a much more slender style in my example than 

 would be surmised by an inspection of Prof. Pai-ker's figure. I 

 find that the measurements of this part of the sternal apparatus 

 are as follows : — The total length of the style is 1 3 mm. The 

 diameter at the front end is 4 mm. ; in the narrowest part of the 

 style it is less than 1 mm. in breadth. The end of the sternum, 

 where it terminates in a cai'tilaginous " epiphysis," is about 1 1 mm. 

 in diameter. It is clear from Prof. Parker's figure that the 

 sternum of his example was distinctly difierent and stouter and 

 shorter than my specimen. Still, on the whole there is j)lainly a 

 substantial agTeement. The cartilaginous end of the sternum is 

 not at all rounded in my example. It ends squarely, and is of no 

 greater diameter than the bony part immediately preceding it. 

 There is absolutely no approach to the rounded cheesecutter-like 

 end of the sternum, as it is portrayed in Prof. Parker's figure. 

 In all of these points the present species difi"ers markedly from 

 Megalophrys nasihta. 



The proportions of this pai't of the skeleton are, moreover, 

 rather different in the two Frogs. The length of the sternum in 

 Megalophrys montana has been mentioned. As the frog itself 

 measures 72 mm. from the tip of the snout to the vent, the length 

 of the sternum is very nearly one-sixth of that length. On the 

 other hand, in Megalophrys nasuta, which measured at least 

 135 mm. in length, the sternum proper had a length of 36 mm. 

 from end to end. The proportion is here obviously rather different. 

 The sternum is plainly shorter and more like a quarter of the 

 total body-length. As to the sternum itself, in Megaloj^hrys 



* ' Monograph of the Shoulder-girdle,' Ray Soc. 1869, pi. vi. fig. 8. On p. 78 he 

 says that " the left, normally, overlaps the rigJit " (italics mine). 



