154 
HORN EXPEDITION—AMPHIBIA. 
In other parts of Australia forms such as Limnodynastes dorsalis, Chiroleptes 
platycephalus, Noiaden betmettii, etc., liave long been known to burrow, and it is by 
a strongly-marked development of this habit that the Central Australian frogs are 
enabled to survive. 
Especially from the inland parts of New South Wales and Queensland there 
have frequently been received accounts of water-holding frogs which burrow, and 
from the bodies of which, in times of drought, the blacks will secure water enough 
to drink. 
The identity of this frog has not been hitherto determined, but in Central 
Australia, by the aid of the blacks, we found its burrows, and took the frogs out 
of them all swollen with water. In this instance it proves to be Chiroleptes 
platycephahis, and as this species is found in the dry inland districts of New South 
Wales and Queensland, and is the one form which, in Central Australia, has most 
strongly developed the habit, it may perhaps be safe to conclude that it is the most 
important water-holding frog, though at the same time other forms have develo 2 :)pd 
the same habit. For example, another species of the same genus (C. brevipahnatiis) 
also burrows, but though it holds a certain amount of water it does not become so 
noticeably swollen out as in the case of the first-mentioned species. 
The habits of the difterent sjDecies will be dealt with as each form is described. 
In this place it may be stated generally that out of the six species which -we came 
across (and though the number of species is small the number of individuals is very 
considerable—in fact, after the rainy season very great) three, viz., C. platycephalus, 
C. brevipalmatus, and H. pictus, form what may be called permanent burrows, in 
which they lie dormant until the return of rain. One, Z. ornatus, forms temporary 
burrows, from which it frequently emerges and then burrows again, while of two, 
H. rubella and H. gilleni, there is no direct evidence to show that they burrow at 
all. Of the two latter species we did not secure the second alive; and it seems to 
be comparatively local, and is, I think, an immigi’ant from the north. At the 
same time, as this species is only procured after rain, it is quite possible that it 
burrows. The other species, H. rubella, is met with at almost every water-hole, 
and we found it nowhere else. 
Possibly the little species of Hyla may also burrow, but there is no evidence 
of its doing so. It evidently breeds very freely, and may thus in times of Hood be 
carried about for long distances. Once, at Illamurta in the James Range, it was 
found in the damp ground close by the creek ; but in this spot there was a 
permanent soakage and no indication of its forming anything like a permanent 
burrow. 
