Note on Batrochians. 
(By EDGAR THURSTON.) 
The volume of the ' Fauna of Britisli India^ which is 
devoted to the Keptilia and Batrachia has been recently ^ 
issued^ and, so far as the Batrachia of S. India are con- 
cerned^ adds very litde to our previous knowledge. It is^ 
in fact, admitted in the preface that many of the characters 
of the genera and species now published are taken from 
the Catalogue of Batrachians in the British Museum. The 
genus Ixalus is now separated into Ixaliis and Micrixalus, 
species of the latter being said to be dwarfed forms of Rana, 
which do not develope vomerine teeth. - Rana gracilis and 
Gallida ulivacea of the British Museum Catalogue appear 
as R. limnocharis and G. variegata. But little is recorded as 
to life-habits; and, as a matter of fact, many of the species 
are known only from one or a very few specimenSj and there 
is no record as to their habits or appearance during life. 
Among the few new facts which are mentioned are that 
Naimobatrachus Beddomiiis one of the smallest Batrachians 
known, and that the male of Bufo vielanostictus (the house 
toad of Madras) has black nuptial excrescences on the two 
inner fiiigers. 
The habitats given for some of the S. Indian species, 
which alone interest me, do not, in some cases, coincide 
with those recorded in my Catalogue of the Batrachians 
of Sonthern India, which was based on the British Museum 
Catalogue ; and the following list contains a comparison 
of the habitats of some species as given in the ' Fauna of 
> This note was read before the society in 1S91. 
» Vide Boulenger Proc. Zool. Soc. Lojid. ISSS., p 205. 
