164 
HORN EXPEDITION—AMPHIBIA. 
of such a frog, which was said to contain about a wine-glassful of “ clear sweet 
water,” and to bury itself under little mounds like mole-hills. 
Judging by its habits and distribution, this frog is probably identical with 
the Central Australian burrower, as, though other species burrow, it is C. platy- 
cephalus which appears to be especially known to the blacks as the water-holding 
animal. 
The first authentic account of its burrow appears to be that quoted by 
Mr. Fletcher on the authority of Mr. Rose.* The latter found the frogs buried in 
not very hard ground, but never found, nor did we, any water in the burrow. 
In Central xiustralia C. platycephahis seems to prefer the hard clay-pans 
rather than the sandy creeks, as the sand-beds of the latter are too loose for the 
formation of its burrow. We came across the animal first when camj)ed by the 
side of a very shallow clay-pan, the floor of which was deeply cracked with the 
sun’s heat. Around the edge were withered shrubs of Chenopodium nitrariaceuui^ 
and it was at the base of these that the blackfellows looked for the burrow. In 
the hard-baked clay were imprints made by the frog as it burrowed, and about a 
foot underground we came across the animal, puffed out into a spherical shape and 
just filling up a cavity, the walls of which were moist but not wet. The ground 
was so hard that it had to be chipped away. When one side of the burrow was 
opened the frog remained perfectly still; its lower eyelid was drawn up over the 
eye, and was very opaque, giving rise to the belief amongst the blacks that the 
animal is blind (Fig. 9). In the sunlight, after a short time, it opened its eyes. 
On squeezing the body water was forced out of the cloaca; this was 
apparently accumulated principally in the urinary bladder. On cutting the body 
open, it was seen that there was a certain amount of water in the subcutaneous 
spaces, but that the greater portion, which caused the great swelling-out of the body, 
was contained in the body cavity itself ; and it was also observed that the lungs 
were considerably distended and lengthened, their apices lying right in the pelvic 
region. They contained air and not water, but their outer faces were bathed 
with the water in the body cavity. 
The skin becomes very tense, and will sometimes, after immersion of the 
animal in spirits, maintain more or less its spherical shape. 
It is somewhat difficult to understand how the water becomes stored in the 
body cavity, but there is no doubt as to its being so in these forms. 
* Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., vol. vi. (2nd Series), 1891, p, 269. 
