241 



NOTES ON THE HABITS AND REPRODUCTION OF THE GREAT 

 WESTERN BURROWING FROG, HELEIOPORUS ALBOPUNCTATUS. 



I'.\ William J. Dakix, D.So., P.L.S., K.Z.S., 



Professor of Biology in the University of Western Australia. 



(With a Figure in the text. ) 



During the month of April certain small areas in South Perth came to be the 

 practising grounds for orchestras of frogs, the noise in some cases being suffi- 

 cient to prevent people sleeping at night. A search by the unhappy citizens for 

 the disturbers of the peace often proved fruitless, ami this was all the more strange 

 seeing that the noise was in these cases USuallj produced quite close to a house. 

 The author was one of the worst sufferers, but traced the origin of the curious 

 croaking at an early date. The noise is peculiar, ami hence rather difficult to 

 describe. It is somewhat between a little coo ami a moan, not a sharp cry, or 

 a plonk, but a prolonged ami very mournful croon. The croaking was first 

 heard from a low-lying part of the garden which was quite bare of vegetation, 

 owing to the fact that the ground had been dug over and trampled whilst 

 building an extra room to the house. (We have been told that it was originally 

 quite swampy. I The weather was still dry — the fag end of summer — and con- 

 sequently it seemed unlikely that the owners of the voices could have arrived from 

 any other garden. At first only one or two frogs were present, and they com- 

 menced regularly about six o'clock in the afternoon, and stopped somewhere 

 about five o'clock in the morning. 



Every night following the first appearance the number of croakers increased, 

 until in two or three weeks' time the noise from the 40 square feet of garden 

 was something appalling. If one went out at night to investigate with a lan- 

 tern, not a sign of a frog could be observed anywhere. To make matters more 

 annoying, the noise stopped even if one walked as softly as possible to any spot 

 where one could have sworn to the presence of a frog. 



It was, of course, obvious that the croaking frogs were all below the ground, 

 and that they had either merely awakened from their summer's sleep, or had at 

 the same time risen from greater depths in the soil where moisture would have 

 been present throughout the long dry season. The use of a spade soon brought 

 the hidden animals to light. They were situated about 18 inches to 2 feet below 

 the surface of the light sandy soil. Four were obtained in two square feet, and 

 it was calculated that if the distribution was anything like uniform there must 

 have been 100 frogs in the small 50-ft. square area near the house. The frog 

 turned out to be Heleioporus albopunctatus — the Great Western Burrowing Frog. 

 It is said to be represented in the East by Pliilocryphus, and in this connection 

 there are two features to be noted which are curious similarities. On being 

 handled, especially if the back be gently tapped, the frog becomes gradually 

 distended, swelling up until the skin looks as if it would burst. This is effected 

 by pumping air into the lung's, which seem capable of enormous distension. A 



