RANIDAE DENDROBATINAE 



273 



operator, are plucked out, and these places are rubbed with the 

 poison, often simply with the living frog, certainly not with its 

 blood, as is sometimes asserted. This operation may be repeated 

 when the new, young feathers begin to bud. The result is that 

 these appear yellow instead of green, and since the Brazilians, 

 and to a certain extent the Portuguese, are rather partial to 

 these artificially -produced freaks or "contrafeitos" as they 

 call them, the industry is kept up. That the poison is also 

 used for arrows has been mentioned on p. 38. 



Fig. 53. — Dendrobates tinctorius, three colour-variations, x 1. 



D. trivittatus, chiefly in Northern Brazil, has the first finger 

 slightly longer than the second. It likewise varies considerably 

 in its coloration, being either quite black, or spotted with white 

 and brown, or with a whitish forehead and several white patches 

 on the back and hind - limbs. D. typographus of Central 

 America is vermilion red, with small dark marks on the back ; 

 the legs are black. 



The various species of Dendrohates take remarkable care of 

 their young. I), hraccatus lives in Brazil in "varzeas," i.e. 

 moist but waterless places, and carries its tadpoles on its back, 

 to which they are attached by a peculiar secretion. The same is 

 said to be true of D. trivittatus, which sits down in a drying-up 

 puddle, lets the little tadpoles, when they are only 6-7 mm. long, 

 fasten themselves on, and conveys them to a safer locality, where 

 the water is calculated not to evaporate before the metamorphosis 

 is completed. 



VOL. VIII T 



