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Show 1896.] BATRACHIANS OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 909 " Bull-frog" by tbe English in Singapore, and detested for tbe noise it makes at night. These rotund animals were common about Tanglin, and could be heard croaking in March and April (probably in other months also) every night after a rainy day. Their voice is very loud and can be heard from some distance ; the croak is a deep guttural " wau-auhhhhk," very strident and prolonged. The males croak while floating on the surface of the water, the mouth, head, and inflated sides of the body just above the surface, the single vocal sac under the mouth inflated like a globe and the arms and legs extended. They can hop well on land, and are good swimmers. The males are' easily caught, their voice betraying their position in the dark, but I only obtained one female. Their skin is excessively slimy; wdien handled the slime comes off profusely, and dries into a sort of white gum, with a faint aromatic smell, not unpleasant. This gum dissolves in hot-water, and coagulates in cold. The general appearance of these Frogs is very stout, their girth being about twice the length from snout to vent. As observed by Cantor (p. 144), the profile from the snout to tbe vent forms a considerable arch, the highest part being the centre of the back. As Cantor also observes, " The toes are more slender than the fingers, and their last joint, although flattened, is not so broad as that of the fingers, which is of a somewhat triangular form, truncated in front." The tongue, which is oblong in a spirit-specimen, in life is very elastic, assuming when extended a vermiform shape and reaching about 40 m m . in length ; this is probably for feeding on ants, as Stoliczka (J. A. S. B. 1870, p. 155) says of this species near Moulmein, " It appeared after sunset.. . .crawling on old wood and feeding on white ants." The pupil is round. Coloration (from life, April 1896).-Top and sides of head yellow-ochre, shading to brown on the nose, and a brown band runs from the nose to below the eye, beneath tbe eye it turns dark brown, and in the vertical of the posterior margin of the eye or slightly further back ends abruptly. The upper lip is yellow-ochre. The back is a rich dark brown, divided distinctly from the yellow of the face by a narrow black line, from eye to eye; the upper part of the prominence over the eye being parti-coloured. In the female specimen there were ten or twelve irregular yellowish spots on the back, and a very faint narrow black vertical line. A broad very distinct band of yellow-ochre runs from the eyelid to the inset of the hind leg, with a more or less scolloped outline and bordered above wdth black, also in some specimens bordered below anteriorly with black. The sides of the belly are more or less mottled with yellow and brown. The lower surfaces are dirty buff. The chin and throat in the male are black, and the vocal sac, when collapsed, shows as loose longitudinal folds of black skin under the chin. The limbs are grey, mottled wdth dark brown, and wdth more or less distinct patches of yellow-ochre, sometimes on the hind legs outlined with black. The intensity of the colouring varies with individuals and |
