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ANIMAL LIFE IN THE TROPICAL FORESTS 
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size, but such monsters are rare. In Borneo, Mr. St. John 
states that he measured one twenty-six feet long, probably 
the largest ever measured by a European in the East. The 
great water-boa of South America is believed to reach the 
largest size. Mr. Bates measured skins twenty-one feet long, 
but the largest ever met with by a European appears to be 
that described by the botanist, Dr. Gardiner, in his Travels in 
Brazil. It had devoured a horse, and was found dead, en- 
tangled in the branches of a tree overhanging a river, into 
which it had been carried by a flood. It was nearly forty 
feet long. These creatures are said to seize and devour full- 
sized cattle on the Rio Branco ; and from what is known of 
their habits this is by no means improbable. 
Frogs and Toads 
The only Amphibia that often meet the traveller’s eye in 
equatorial countries are the various kinds of frogs and toads, 
and especially the elegant tree-frogs. When the rainy season 
begins, and dried-up pools and ditches become filled with 
water, there is a strange nightly concert produced by the 
frogs, some of which croak, others bellow, while many have 
clanging or chirruping, and not unmusical notes. In roads 
and gardens one occasionally meets huge toads six or seven 
inches long ; but the most abundant and most interesting of 
the tribe are those adapted for an arboreal life, and hence 
called tree-frogs. Their toes terminate in discs, by means of 
which they can cling firmly to leaves and stems. The majority 
of them are green or brown, and these usually feed at night, 
sitting quietly during the day so as to be almost invisible, 
owing to their colour and their moist shining skins so closely 
resembling vegetable surfaces. Many are beautifully marbled 
and spotted, and when sitting on leaves resemble large beetles 
more than frogs, while others are adorned with bright and 
staring colours ; and these, as Mr. Belt has discovered, have 
nauseous secretions which render them uneatable, so that they 
have no need to conceal themselves. Some of these are bright 
blue, others are adorned with yellow stripes, or have a red 
body with blue legs. Of the smaller tree-frogs of the tropics 
there must be hundreds of species still unknown to naturalists. 
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