200 ANURA 



jacks. Others squeeze themselves into the most uncomfortable 

 cracks, while others again prefer the broad leaves of PJiilodendron. 

 A favourite place for two or three at a time is the funnel- 

 shaped spaces formed by Bromdia-'^la.Tiis. Those specimens 

 which are hidden in the box or in the hollows of rotten 

 stumps are, almost without exception, dull, very dark brownish 

 olive, while those on the Bromelias assume exactly the sombre 

 dull green of its leaves. Lastly, those which sit in the light, 

 exposed places, no matter if upon a leaf, on a white stone, or 

 Lipon a board, are emerald -green, especially beautiful on hot, 

 sunny days ; — and they are not always averse to the full glare of 

 the sun. When squatting upon a flat surface, such as a broad 

 leaf, they tuck the fore-paws under the head like a cat, and with 

 half open eyelids, the pupil contracted to a tiny slit, so that the 

 golden iris is exposed, they remain motionless during the day. 

 They take food when offered, but at night they roam about, 

 either hopping on the ground, or making enormous leaps from 

 leaf to leaf, sometimes deliberately stalking some choice insect, 

 and patiently climbing up a stem, hand over hand. At night 

 their whole aspect is changed. The colour is saturated green, 

 the eyes are transformed into round, projecting shiny black 

 beads, and the head is erect. The ludicrously dreamy, complacent 

 look has given way to wide-awake alertness. They take all 

 kinds of living food. When they find an earthworm, they first 

 look at it, bending the head sharply down, lift themselves upon 

 the fore-limbs and then pounce upon it, nipping the prey with 

 the jaws, and then poking it down deliberately with the hands. 

 Cockroaches are simply lapped up, and disappear in the twinkle 

 of an eye. Mealworms, wood-lice, butterflies and moths, flies and 

 spiders are taken. The stomach of a specimen in the Dresden 

 Museum, from the Aru Islands, contained some four or five young 

 freshwater Crustaceans of the genus Sesarma. They fortunately 

 do not molest smaller frogs of their own kind and of other 

 species. Like many Amphibia they like a change of diet, and 

 ultimately refuse their food if it is unvaried. To my surprise my 

 largest specimen, which measures a little more than 4 inches, 

 takes snails, Helix virgata, half-a-dozen at a time, and on the 

 following day, not during the night, vomits the sucked-out shells 

 in a lump, like the pellets of birds of prey. During this rather 

 painful-looking procedure the whole tongue and about half an 



