704 AMPHIBIA — HYLIDJE. 



ponds in order to copulate, the male seizing the female just behind the 

 arms. A short time after he noticed the pond to contain a great number 

 of dead animals, which he explains on the supposition that the males 

 while mounted upon the females, pressed the latter under water so long 

 as to cause death from drowning, and this view was corroborated by his 

 finding, in some cases, the male still clasping the dead female. 



FAMILY HYLID^. TREE TOADS. 



Head short ; parotoids none ; tongue attached in front, free and usually notched 

 behind ; ear well developed, with a distinct tympanum ; maxillary and vomero-pala- 

 tine teeth present in upper jaw ; abdominal integument areolate, or with tubercular 

 granulations ; toes palmate, with the tips of the digits dilated, forming disks or pellets ; 

 YeitehTse procojlian ; sacral diapophvses dilated or undilated ; arboreal or aquatic. 



This family are most abundant in the Neotropical, but absent from the Ethiopian 

 region, and our North American genera may be divided as follows: 



* Toes distinct or slightly webbed at base ; fingers nearly or quite distinct ; disks 

 small Chokophii.us. 



* Toes webbed nearly to tips ; fingers nearly or quite distinct ; disks small. Acws. 



* Toes prominently webbed ; fingors partially palmate ; disks large ; body often short 

 and thick Hyxa. 



Genus CHOEOPHILUS. Baird. 



Body slender and very delicate, smooth or granulated above ; tongue nearly orbicular, 

 emarginate behind ; vomerine teeth posterior to or between the inner nares ; fingers and 

 toes distinct or with basal web reaching to i)halanges ; tips slightly dilated ; sacral 

 diapophyses expanded ; males with a vocal vesicle, vomerine teeth between the inner 

 nares ; skin above granulated C. triskriatus. 



Vomerine teeth posterior to inner nares ; skin above smooth or warty, not granu- 

 lated ; web entirely wanting between the two outer toes ; color above black, with spots 

 or stripes. . . C nigritus. 



Chorophilus trisekiatds Wiedman. 



Liittle Tree Frog. 



Hyla triseriatus, Max. Prinz von Wikdman. 

 Selocates triseriatus et feriarum, Baird. 

 ChoropMlus triseriatus, Jordan, Cope. 



General color above, bluish ash to black, with a vertebral and two lateral lines, often 

 with five distinct stripes in front ; spots wanting, or present only upon the head ; femur 

 about as long as, or somewhat shorter than, the tibia ; toes with a slight trace of web 

 at the base of each ; second toe very long, fifth short; hind legs long, about two and a 

 half to three times the anterior ; skin granulated above and below, without warts f 

 vomerine teeth in two eleva,ted cLroiilar patches, between the inner nares. 



Length, 1 inch ; hind leg. If inches; head to axilla, 5 lines; transverse diameter of 

 head, 3J lines; vertical diameter of head, If lines; transverse diameter of body, 3 

 lines, 



