FASCICULI MALATENSES 
138 
orange, changing into deep salmon pink on the abdomen and under surface of 
digits ; throat and chest cream-colour.’ 
The specimen, a female, measures 88 mm. from snout to vent. The 
largest specimen, from Bidi, Sarawak, in the British Museum, measures 100 mm. 
The male is still unknown. 
‘ Mr. Robinson, who took the specimen, notes that it dropped almost 
vertically from a tall tree growing at the edge of a large clearing in the jungle, 
while the individual obtained by Mr. L. Wray, in Upper Perak, was sitting 
on a tree-trunk.^ Beyond the statement of the Chinamen who procured 
Wallace his specimen, there appears to be no evidence to prove that the “flying 
frog ” does use its enormous feet to support it in the air, and, so far as we 
could see, it did not appear likely, from the condition of the web in the living 
animal, that their purpose was that assigned to them by the discoverer of the 
species. The seemingly gorgeous coloration may very possibly be protective 
in its proper surroundings, for, with the exception of the black and orange on 
the feet, the colours are not arranged so as to contrast with one another, and, 
as I have pointed out elsewhere,^ the most brilliant colours, provided only 
their arrangement be correct, may serve for concealment under conditions of 
light common in the Malay jungle. In the plate, our specimen of R. nigro- 
palmatus is represented as it now is, for the marblings on its dorsal surface 
only became apparent after it was plunged into spirit. It is interesting to 
notice that markings of a similar character appear on the bodies of all the three 
species of Rhacophorus taken, if they are roughly treated, and probably also if 
they are in bad health. These markings are not conspicuous enough to be 
instances of warning coloration, but are rather analogous to the blushing or 
paling of a human being under the influence of emotion or in pathological 
conditions. 
‘ Within the limits of the genus Rhacophorus we have the three main 
divisions, into which the phenomena of protective coloration may be divided, 
all well illustrated ; in the first place, there are species, like R. leprosus^ which 
are coloured to suit their habitual environment, having little power of adapting 
their colour to any other environment ; in the second place, there are species, 
like R. leucomystax^ which can, to a certain extent, adapt themselves so as to 
be concealed in environments of several different kinds ; while in the third, 
there are species, like R. rohinsonii^ which appear to resemble some definite 
object, in this case a dying leaf, not necessarily to be found in the environment 
in which they are seated for the moment, but which might very well occur in 
surroundings of the kind.’ 
1. Proc. Zool. Soc., 1899, p. 899. 
2. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1900, pp. 849-852. 
