270 
FROGS AND TOADS. 
for adhesion, showing the creature to be a tree-frog, it is difficult to imagine that 
this immense membrane of the toes can be for the purpose of swimming only, and 
the account of the Chinaman, that it flew down from the tree, becomes more 
credible.” The species referred to is the Bornean flying frog (Rhacophorus 
pardalis), a member of a large genus, of which another representative ( R. rein- 
wardti ), is shown in the illustration on p. 269. Of the forty-two species oi 
the genus, thirty occur in South and East Asia, and the remaining twelve in 
Madagascar. While allied in most respects to the water-frogs, they all differ by the 
presence of a small ad¬ 
ditional bone between 
the terminal and penul¬ 
timate joints of the toes, 
and likewise by the 
penultimate joints being 
distinctly marked exter¬ 
nally as a kind of ridge; 
while they are further 
mostly characterised by 
the webbing of the toes 
of the fore-feet, although 
the degree to which this 
is carried is variable. 
The tips of the toes are 
always expanded into 
round discs, and very 
generally their terminal 
joints are forked. The 
males are provided with 
one or two internal vocal 
sacs. In habits these 
frogs are strictly 
arboreal; their bright 
coloration har- 
with the 
leaves among which 
they dwell. The larvge are remarkable for the possession of an adhesive disc 
behind the mouth on the under surface; while the muzzle is prolonged into a 
proboscis, and the single breathing-pore is situated on the right side of the body, 
nearer to the tail than to the muzzle. Writing of the habits of one of the 
Cingalese members of the genus (formerly separated as Polypedates), in which 
the front toes are only half-webbed, Emerson Tennent observes that it “ possesses 
in a high degree, the faculty of changing its hues; one as green as a leaf to-day 
will be found grey and spotted like the back to-morrow. One of these beautiful 
little creatures, which had seated itself on the gilt pillar of a lamp on my dinner- 
table, became in a few minutes scarcely distinguishable in colour from the ormolu 
ornament to which it cluim.” 
c"> 
VARIABLE TREE-FROGS (liat. size). 
green 
monismg 
