TREE-NESTING FROGS 
tells us. Tree-frogs gulp down their prey, stuffing it 
into their mouths with their hands. They do not flash 
out a tongue causing the fly to instantaneously dis- 
appear like other frogs and toads. And for the good 
reason, that their tongue is but slightly protrusible. 
Hyla arborea can, like most frogs, change its colour. 
There are more tree-frogs of this group than there are 
members of any other group of amphibians. The Zoo 
constantly harbours examples of a large Australian 
form, Hyla cerulea, (which is represented in the accom- 
panying figure), a badly applied name since it is 
green with bright white flecks. These white flecks have 
been held to suggest to the pursuing snake spots of 
mildew or spots of sunlight, and thus to dissuade 
him from attempting to devour something so obviously 
inanimate. Tnese frogs, like the European tree-frog, 
lay their eggs in water. Asa matter of fact the breeding 
habits of-tree-frogs are most varied ; some carry the 
eges about attached to their bodies in various ways. 
Others make nests of greater or less elaboration even upon 
trees. A species in Japan, apparently of this group, 
constructs something that looks like a hornet’s nest, 
which is full of eggs, and, later, tadpoles, which would 
after a time seem to drop into water lying beneath. 
But this bird-like fashion of making nests in trees 
and then laying eggs in them is not confined to the 
Hylidae. Nor, of course, is the mode adopted by some 
of carrying the eggs about the person, even as in Noto- 
trema, where a sac developed for that purpose exists in 
the skinof the back. Wehave already considered the 
strange case of Pipa, which does the same thing. 
It is odd that the tree-frog, like the Irishman, keeps 
dry during a storm of rain by getting into a pond. Of 
course one explanation is that, the leaves get rather too 
slippery for the frog conveniently to adhere to them. 
It is frightfully noisy, and is possibly the frog which 
Ge 289 U 
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