OCR Text |
Show 894 MR. STANLEY S. FLOWER ON THE [Nov. 14, at Singapore:-" It does not attempt to escape by jumping into the water.... but even if touched squats down close.... so is easily caught." The individuals I met at Chumar had this habit, but elsewhere, at Taiping, Bangkok, &c., I found them very agile and difficult to snare. In captivity they feed readily, eating insects in the same manner as R. temporaria does ; winged termites they devour in large numbers and will also manage grasshoppers of comparatively large size; when suddenly seized in the hand or when caught by a snake, they utter shrill piercing shrieks of alarm. Colour (in life). Bangkok specimens not unfrequently have a very distinct grass-green vertebral line, others none at all; in the Dong Phya Fai the commonest colour-variety was one I have not seen elsewhere, there being transverse bands of bright grass-green across the back, but specimens with yellow vertebral lines were also to be seen. The sexes are coloured alike, except that the male may have a broad black M-shaped mark on the throat. The following description applies to Taiping specimens :- Above olive-brown, irregularly mottled with darker ; vertebral line either absent, or well defined, narrow and yellow, or irregular, broad and orange-coloured. Limbs extensively marked with dark brown; hinder portion of thigh yellow, marbled with dark brown. Underneath of head, neck, and body pure white, but lower surface of limbs yellow. Both upper and lower lips white, with large distinct dark brown blotches ; the point of the snout white, with a well-defined very dark brown blotch on each side. Size. A pair caught in copula in Bangkok, 24th July, 1898, measured:- d • Snout to vent 46 m m . 2 • Snout to vent 52 m m . Distribution. Sikhim, India, Ceylon, Burma, China, Hongkong, Hainan, Formosa, Japan, Siam, Malay Peninsula, Java, Lombok, and Borneo. 11. RANA HASCHEANA (Stol.). Polypedates hascheanus, Stol. J. A. S. B. 1870, p. 147, pl. ix. fig. 3. I caught one apparently adult specimen on Penang Hill, at an elevation of 2000 feet, late at night in April 1898, it was very active ; also many young ones in the same locality during March and April. Colour (in life). Above rich yellow, with on the side very small dark brown spots more or less symmetrically arranged ; a dark brown band between the eyes, edged with paler yellow in front, followed by a faint W-shaped mark, the ends of which begin behind the eyes; Stoliczka adds, "a pair of somewhat indistinct blackish spots below the middle of the body," these are just discernible in m y specimen; sides of the head and neck rich dark brown, spotted with pale yellow, the most noticeable spot being a large irregularly shaped one behind the angle of the mouth ; sides of body finely spotted with very dark brown and white ; limbs with dark brown cross-bands ; lower parts white, with pale purple |