Zoology.] NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. [Reptiles. 



So completely like the common green edible Frog of Europe 

 (Rana viridis) is this in form and habits, that I cannot agree with 

 the majority of modern writers, who refer it to the genus Hyla % a,nd 

 I willingly adopt rather for it the genus Ranoidea of Tschudi, 

 leaving it in the family Hylidce. The discs at the tips of the fingers 

 and toes are so much smaller than in Hyla, or the true Tree-Frogs, 

 that they are almost useless for climbing, although they adhere 

 tenaciously to the fingers when the living creature is held ; and 

 this species, unlike the Tree-Frogs, is not found on trees or bushes, 

 but in the neighborhood of water, ponds or pools of any kind, into 

 which they, like the true Frogs (Rana), plunge on the least alarm, 

 instead of shunning it as the Tree-Frogs (Hyla) do. The note of 

 the male also approaches that of various true Frogs (Rana), and is 

 quite unlike that of the Tree-Frogs (Hyla). The general sound is 

 a hoarse, prolonged croak, varied by a loud " clunk " monotonously 

 repeated at intervals, very much like the sound of the mallet and 

 chisel of a number of stonemasons. So like is this that when a 

 portion of the University was being built, and a number of masons 

 were working on the hard sonorous basalt (called bluestone by the 

 colonists) a hundred yards from my house, a newly arrived servant, 

 writing home an account of the busy scene, mentioned that the 

 masons could be heard at work the whole of the moonlight nights — 

 so completely alike was the sound of these Bell-Frogs in an adjoining 

 pond at night to the noise of the men by day. In summer the note 

 often resembles so exactly the short "clunk" of the cattle-bells 

 that people seeking their cows or horses at dusk in the bush can 

 scarcely tell one from the other. 



The transverse processes of the sacral vertebras are, as a rule, 

 dilated at their ends in the Hylce, but in the present Frog they are 

 as narrow and nearly cylindrical as in the true Frogs (Rana) ; and 

 it is curious that Dr. Giinther, in describing the skeleton, does not 

 notice this point. They keep on the margins of pools or under 

 water during the day, but at night they wander about anywhere 

 over the ground and gardens, seeking slugs, insects, worms, &c, 

 for food. They are eaten by the natives, who, taking a torch 

 by night, thrust a sharpened stick through as many of them as 

 they choose to make a meal of, and using it like a spit, roast 



[ 15 ] 



