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Show 1899.] BATRACHIANS OF THE MALAY PENINSULA AND SIAM. 907 the single male obtained from a field near Malacca by Cantor, and specimens in the Museum at Kuala Lumpor, from that place, where it is said to be common. In Siam I have observed it in Bangkok (Jan., May, June, July, Aug., Nov., and Dec), at Paknam Menam (Aug.), at Tahkamen on the Bangpakong river (April), and I have also received specimens from Chantaboon. Habits. From having kept many specimens in captivity for months at a time, and also observed them frequently in their native haunts, I think Callula pulchra is the cleverest batrachian I have come across : they are good swimmers, can hop well on land and also climb fairly, though slowly ; ours in captivity in the evening often go up the glass side of their case, but they manage better in a corner than on a plain vertical glass wall. During the rains, when every evening swarms of insects flew into the house attracted by the light and were a great annoyance at dinner-time, we were in the habit of putting a Callula or two on the dinner-table : they seemed to understand what they were there for, and instead of jumping off the table or being alarmed by us or the servants, caught and ate the flying insects, one after another, as they alighted on the cloth. Termites, ants, moths, small beetles, crickets, and grasshoppers they devour eagerly, but the larger crickets and grasshoppers they cannot manage to hold to get them into their small mouths ; they seem more clever in catching their desired prey than either Rana or Bufo, and also show curious discrimination in not attempting to seize the winged bugs, which often come into the house at the same time as the swarms of ants, termites, &c. During the rainy season in Bangkok almost every evening, after a wet day, the whole air is full of the booming of these frogs-" eung-ahng, eung-ahng, eung-ahng," now rising, now falling, and the sound continues all night. In some of the roads where there is low land and much water on each side, and Callula swarms, you can hardly hear yourself speak for the noise, but at the distance of a quarter or half a mile the sound is not unpleasant and is like that of a great weir or waterfall. In Singapore possibly they croak on suitable evenings all the year round; personally I have noted them doing so in the months of March, April, May, June, July, September, October, and December. In captivity they continue to make their characteristic sound; also apparently they can make a quite different noise: on more than one occasion we were disturbed at night in Bangkok by shrill screams apparently of a person in great fear and pain; the noise seemed to come from the room where the Callula were kept, but on procuring a light and going there, I found them sitting quietly in their vivarium as if nothing had occurred, so it cannot be proved that they were the authors of these really alarming cries1. 1 Our knowledge of the strange cries that animals make at times must still be very meagre. Various noises occurred from tiiue to time in the old ruinous palace I lived in at Bangkok that 1 did not succeed in tracing: the natives (as usual) attributed them to the supernatural, but I have no doubt they were |