250 Transactions. — Zoology. 



purpose of studying their habits ; their wattles were of a hght-rose tint, 

 changing into a violet colour towards the base, but after death, when their 

 skins were dried, the wattles assumed a dull orange tint. The parent birds 

 had wattles of the usual rich crimson-lake colour, the base being tinted with 

 violet as in the young birds. 



The egg has almost similarly rounded extremities. Length 1-7 inch, 

 breadth !•! inch ; the under tint of the egg is brownish, mottled with grey 

 and dark brown blotches which are larger and darker at the larger ends. 



Aet. XXV. — On the New Zealand- Frog. By Dr. Fitzinger. Translated 



from the Zoology of the Voyage of the " Novara," by Professor Hutton. 



{Bead before the Otago Institute, lith October, 1879.] 



Family Bomhinatorida. 



Auditory passage imperfectly developed ; transverse processes of the sacral 



vertebrje triangular, flat; no paratoids. (Fingers and toes not dilated at 



the tips ; maxillary teeth). 



Genus Leiopelma, Fitz. 

 Tympanum, sacs, and auditory tubes wanting ; teeth in the upper jaw, 

 and in two faint oblique rows on the palate, behind and between the interior 

 nares. Tongue roundish, more or less margined. Fingers free. Toes half 

 webbed. Pi'ojection of the navicular bone small. 



L. HOCHSTETTERi, Fitz. Vevhandl. d. zool-bot. Gesellschaft zu Wien, Jahrg 

 1861; XI; pag. 218, Taj. VI. 



Body moderately compressed. Eyes rather large ; muzzle rather longer 

 than the eye ; exterior nostrils rather nearer to the eye than to the end of 

 the muzzle. 



A glandular fold between the posterior corner of the eye and the shoul- 

 der ; a second from the eyes, along the sides of the body to the thighs. 

 Several warts about the corner of the mouth, and a few smaller ones on the 

 back and on the sides of the rump. Two smooth, yellow callosities on the 

 palm of the hand, one on the metacarpus of the thumb, and one near that 

 of the fourth finger. Fingers and toes depressed. Toes connected by the 

 web for about half their length, the fi-ee part bordered by the membrane. 

 Projection of the navicular bone faintly elevated. A dark-grey triangular 

 band between the eyes, in front of which is a broadish and hghter oblique 

 stripe ; hind limbs with broad cross bands on a yellowish-brown ground. 

 Belly and sides of rump dirty grey-violet, marbled with yellowish-brown ; a 



