220 



ANURA 



of this " Sapo " iu Puerto Eico on the 4th of iSTovember ; on the 

 25th the young showed the first signs of hind-limbs, on the 3rd 

 of December of fore-limbs, and on the 7th of the same month 

 they began to climb out of the water. 



Paludicola is a semi-aquatic genus with some eighteen species, 

 ranging from Mexico to Patagonia and across the Andes into 

 Chili. Some of them have a peculiar gland on the lumbar region, 

 or large, flat warts on the back, sometimes arranged iu longi- 

 tudinal folds. The toes are slightly webbed, or free, according to 

 the more or less pronounced aquatic habits. 



P. fuscomcwtdata, an inhabitant of Southern Brazil, Paraguay, 

 and Uruguay, is a short-limbed frog, with spreading slender toes 

 and a small head. There are shovel- 

 shaped, black, horny tubercles on the 

 metatarsus. The general colour is olive 

 above, with darker markings and con- 

 fluent white-edged spots; the limbs are 

 cross - barred ; the lumbar glands are 

 black, with a white margin in front. The 

 male has a vocal sac. Budgett ^ gives 

 the following account of its habits : — 



The peculiar cry, which is so con- 

 stantly heard in the neighbourhood of 

 shallow pools in the Paraguayan Chaco, 

 and resembles that of a kitten, is pro- 

 mamiata, x 1, with' vocal duccd by the alternate inflation of throat 

 sacs par y e . ^^^ abdomen. When fully inflated, the 



frog appears to be the size of a golf -ball, but, if startled, 

 instantaneously shrinks to one-fifth of that size, so that it seems 

 to have vanished. It has also the power of ventriloquising. 

 The food consists largely of water-beetles. In the spawning time 

 it was found at night floating on the surface of pools in the 

 distended condition, and crying to the females in a most 

 mournful way. On coming to the surface it fills its lungs with 

 a few gasps, greatly distending the walls of the abdomen, and 

 then drives the air into the vocal sacs, causing them to become 

 distended as the body collapses, and giving rise to a kitten - 

 like cry. 



The eggs are chiefly laid in January, and are found embedded 



' Quart. J. Micr. Hci. xlii. 1899, p. 309. 



Fio. 45. — Paludicola fasco- 



