FASCICULI MALATENSES 
135 
abruptly to the embankment, only a few feet in front of its former station. So 
rapidly is this manoeuvre executed, that the frog is often re-established on 
dry land before the cause of its disturbance comes on a level with it, in which 
case it again leaps off and acts as before. At night and during breeding times 
in summer, the rice-field frogs (in Malay herkatak hendang) are very noisy, their 
croaking somewhat resembling the syllables ‘g6ng-gung,gong-gfing,’repeatedly 
and monotonously reiterated. In Jalor, Malay children imitate it very 
accurately by means of an ingenious toy. They take a narrow strip of rattan 
or other flexible but fairly stiff material, and split it for about half its length ; 
on each section they fasten a large Ampullaria shell, and then draw a stick 
rapidly backwards and forwards between the two shells. 
‘ In a number of specimens of K. limnocharis^ taken from the same field 
and on the same day, the colour variation is considerable, some being devoid 
of a pale mid-dorsal line, which in some is white, in some green, in some pink, 
and in some tinged with yellow ; while, occasionally, the whole of the dorsal 
surface, which is usually of a dull mottled-grey, is suffused with bright green. 
This frog forms a very important item in the diet of several reptiles and of 
the numerous wading birds that collect in the rice fields during the rains of 
autumn and winter.’ 
11. Rana erythraea, Schlg. 
Mabek, Jalor. 
‘I do not remember having seen this frog either in the coast lands of the 
Patani States, in the rice fields of Jalor and Nawngchik, or in the comparatively 
dry jungle on the limestone hills of the former state ; but it is not uncommon 
at Mabek, sitting on bushes at the edge of the stream, into which it leaps as 
soon as any disturbance occurs in its vicinity. Several may sometimes be 
seen on one bush. Near Kuala Lumpur, as Mr. Robinson has pointed out 
to me, it is common in the rice fields.’ 
12. Rhacophorus leucomystax, Gravenh. 
Kampong Bayu and Biserat, Jalor. 
‘ This species is fairly common in the neighbourhood of human 
dwellings, both in the Patani States and other parts of the Peninsula, though 
being largely nocturnal, it is not very often seen. Its spawn is never, so far 
as I am aware, deposited in the water, but is either suspended from the leaves of 
trees, the eaves of houses, or some other point projecting over water or damp 
soil, or else is laid on the edge of buffalo-wallows or the embankments of 
s 
2/9/03 
