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Show 94 DE. EMIL A. GOELDI ON THE BEEEDING-HABITS [Feb. 5, be collected on the same nocturnal excursion. The voice is an acute " gr-gr-gr ....," tolerably melodious, resembling somewhat the chirping of certain small birds, the wren for instance. I have likewise some observations on the life-history of this Batrachian. But I shall be brief on this subject, limiting myself to essential points. Hyla polytcenia makes no nursery-pools for its offspring. It deposits its eggs in free lumpy masses on water-plants. I have a photograph taken by m y cousin in the beginning of this year, showing such masses attached to a branch of a. species of Tradescantia, taken from the margin of the same pond as mentioned above. M y cousin informs m e that the tadpoles have a remarkably slow development, and supposes that the larval condition lasts a whole year. 3. HYLA GOELDII, Boulenger. At Colonia Alpina w e discovered in the water which, as is well known, is present in the central cup of certain Bromeliacece (Bilbergia, &c.) another pretty Tree-Frog. I could not determine it, even with the help of Mr. Boulenger's ' Catalogue' (published in 1882), though it is a very distinct and characteristic species. Alive it is of a greenish-grey colour, with a violin-shaped dark figure on the anterior half of the dorsal median line and large transverse bars on the hind legs. The first specimen found was a female, carrying on her back a lumpy mass of about 10 large, globular, whitish eggs. This fact was sufficient to attract m y attention, guessing that I was on the track of a similar case as observed formerly by Bello, Gundlach, and Bavay on the " Coqui" (Hylodes martinicensis) of the West Indies. The specimen was put in a large glass, fitted up rapidly to a tolerably habitable vivarium. For a few days the egg-mass remained attached to the mother's back. But suddenly it fell away and simultaneously I saw in the glass some small, nearly black-coloured frogs, all provided with the anterior and posterior legs, together with a larval tail of medium or rather small size. These young exhibited, from the first moment, a quite unexpected agility and independence, jumping about perfectly well and showing marked preference to stick to the glass walls and to the surfaces of the stones rather than to remain in the water. Part of them I put in a tube with alcohol^ which I sent to M r . Boulenger, together with the mother, while a second, larger specimen, obtained some days afterwards and found in a dry bamboo, very near the locality of the mentioned Bromelia, went to London, vid Paris, in order to enable m y friend Dr. Trouessart to study in situ some psoric Acarids (larva? of a species of Trombidium), visible as crimson points on the abdominal side. The discovery of this second specimen was due to the strong sibilancel emitted every night just 1 In 1886 (Ann. & Mag. N. H. ser. 5, xvii. p. 462) Dr. H. von Ihering wrote about the voice of Phyllomedusa iheringii:-" Their moderately loud voice resembles somewhat the sound produced by running the finger-nail along a thick hair-comb." |
