COLOMBIAN BATRACHIANS AXD REPTILES. 1027 



of identification. But as tlie name " Raine a tapirei- " is based 

 on an observation recorded by Bufibn (Hist. Nat. Oiseaux, vi. 

 p. 235, 1779) to the eftect that tlie frog is used by the savages of 

 Guiana and the Amazon to dye parrots, and is small, azure blue 

 with longitudinal golden yellow bands, and is to be found pre- 

 served in the " Cabinet du Roi," the best thing to do is to go 

 straight to the description of the first author after Lacepede who 

 had access to the specimens alluded to by Bufibn. and this author 

 is Daudin (Hist. Rain, etc., 1802). The larger of the three speci- 

 mens from Guiana in the Paris Museum, presumably those alluded 

 to by Bufibn and Lacepede, is figured in a perfectly recognisable 

 manner on Daudin 's pi. viii. fig. 1, and corresponds very nearly 

 with one from Cayenne in the British Museum, which I thei'efore 

 regard as the typical form of Dendrohates tinctorms. Upper parts 

 blackish brown with symmetrical white (yellow) markings forming 

 two bands on the back, meeting on the coccygeal region and ex- 

 tending, above the canthus rostralis, to the end of the snout after 

 expanding on the upper eyelid ; a transverse bar connects these 

 bands across the middle of the back, and another branch extends 

 to the shoulder; white markings on the flanks; belly paler brown, 

 with black spots. This is the var. daudini Steindachner, Yerh. 

 zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xiv. 1864, p. 262. 



Yar. coctcei. — Hylaplesie de Cocteau, Dum. & Bibr. Ei'p. Gen, 

 pi. xc. fig. 1 ; Dendrohates tinct07'ius, var. B, Dum. & Bibr. op. cit. 

 viii. p. 654 (1841); I), tinctorms, var. cocteaui Steind. Yerh. 

 zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xiv. 1864, p. 260. 



" D'un brun marron on d'une teinte lie de vin, .... une tache 

 d'un blanc jaun^ti'e sur le museau, une autre beaucoup plus grande 

 et de forme ovalaire sur chaque flanc, .... un large bracelet de 

 la meme couleur autour de chaque bras et, de chaque jambe. 

 Assez souvent les taches des flancs se confondent sur la region 

 abdominale." Dum. & Bibr. Locality not stated. 



Six specimens, all from the Choco, in the British Museum, are 

 i-eferable to this variety : — 



a. Tado, Rio San Juan, 230 ft. (M. G. Palmer). Dark reddish 

 brown above, with black spots, black beneath. An oval yellow 

 spot on the top of the head, another occupying the whole flank, 

 widely separated from its fellow on the othei' side ; other large 

 spots are present, one on the foi'earm, one on the thigh, one on 

 the tibia, and one on the throat. 



6. Same locality, same collector. Similar to the preceding, but 

 the spots on the head, throat, and femur absent; the large spot 

 on the flank extends to the shoulder, azid those on the forearm 

 and tibia, completely encircle the limbs. 



c. Upper waters of Condoto River, 1200 ft. (Spurrell). Dark 

 brown above, with bright vermilion-red, sharply defined spots, 

 black beneath. The bright spots are as in a, except that the one 

 on the top of the head is situated further back ; those on the 

 throat and forearm are absent, but others are present on the left 



