ng, a beautiful grass green above
and deep orange underneath[2].

[Footnote 1: A Singhalese variety of the _Rana cutipora?_ and the
Malabar bull-frog, _Hylarana Malabarica_. A frog named by BLYTH _Rana
robusta_ proves to be a Ceylon specimen of the _R. cutipora_.]

[Footnote 2: _R. Kandiana_, Kelaart.]

In the shrubberies around my house at Colombo the graceful little
tree-frogs[1] were to be found in great numbers, sheltered under broad
leaves to protect them from the scorching sun;--some of them utter a
sharp metallic sound at night, similar to that produced by smacking the
lips.

[Footnote 1: _Polypedates maculatus,_ Gray.]

In the gardens and grounds toads[1] crouch in the shade, and pursue the
flies and minute coleoptera. In Ceylon, as in Europe, these creatures
suffer from the bad renown of injecting a poison into the wound
inflicted by their bite.[2] The main calumny is confuted by the fact
that no toad has yet been discovered furnished with any teeth
whatsoever; but the obnoxious repute still attaches to the milky
exudation sometimes perceptible from glands situated on either side
behind the head; nevertheless experiments have shown, that though acrid,
the secretions of the toad are incapable of exciting more than a slight
erythema on the most delicate skins. The smell is, however, fetid and
offensive, and hence toads are less exposed to the attacks of
carnivorous animals and of birds than frogs, in which such glands do not
exist.

[Footnote 1: _Bufo melanostictus_, Schneid.]

[Footnote 2: In Ceylon this error is as old as the third century, B.C.,
when, as the _Mahawanso_ tells us, the wife of "King Asoka attempted to
destroy the great bo-tree (at Magadha) _with, the poisoned fang of a
toad._"--Ch. xx. p. 122.]

In the class of Reptiles, those only are included in the order of
Batrachians which undergo a metamorphosis before attaining maturity; and
as they offer the only example amongst Vertebrate animals of this
marvellous transformation, they are justly considered as the lowest in
the scale, with the exception of fishes, which remain during life in
that stage of development which is only the commencement of existence to
a frog.

In undergoing this change, it is chiefly the organs of respiration that
manifest alteration. In its earliest form the young batrachian, living
in the water, breathes as a fish does by _gills_, either free and
projecting as in the water-newt, or partially covered by integume