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Updated: May 16, 2025
The last of the twilight drained from the world, and the window panes turned a burnished black. Through the half-open sashes sucked a warm little breeze, swaying the long lace curtains back and forth. The hum of lawn-sprinklers and the chirping of crickets and tree-frogs came with it. One by one the lawn-sprinklers fell silent.
Of the family of tailed batrachians, Ceylon does not furnish a single example; but of those without this appendage, the island, as above remarked, affords many varieties; seven distinguishable species pertaining to the genus rana, or true frogs with webs to the hind feet; two to the genus bufo, or true toads, and five to the Polypedates, or East Indian "tree-frogs;" besides a few others in allied genera.
Lastly, when not croaking amid the foliage, the Tree-frogs indulge in the most graceful dives. And so, in May, as soon as it is dark, the pond becomes a deafening orchestra: it is impossible to talk at table, impossible to sleep. We had to remedy this by means perhaps a little too rigorous. What could we do? He who tries to sleep and cannot needs become ruthless.
But what we see here in the development of the individual has happened to the whole class in the course of its stem-history. The metamorphosis goes farther in a third order of Amphibia, the Batrachia or Anura, than in the salamander. To this belong the various kinds of toads, ringed snakes, water-frogs, tree-frogs, etc.
The night-birds were crying "Mercy! mercy!" the lizards and tree-frogs seemed to cross each other's voices, piping "Time! time! time!" "Huldy!" Levin whispered, and let the reins fall loose, and his animal darted through Camden town to the north.
In the shrubberies around my house at Colombo the graceful little tree-frogs 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. In the gardens and grounds toads crouch in the shade, and pursue the flies and minute coleoptera.
Crawfurd mentions forty species of snakes, including the python and the cobra. Alligators in great numbers infest the tidal waters of the rivers. Iguanas and lizards of several species, marsh-frogs, and green tree-frogs abound. The land-leeches are a great pest. Scorpions and centipedes are abundant.
One season I was interested in the tree-frogs; especially the tiny piper that one hears about the woods and brushy fields the hyla of the swamps become a denizen of the trees; I had never seen him in this new role. But this season, having hylas in mind, or rather being ripe for them, I several times came across them. One Sunday, walking amid some bushes, I captured two.
In some houses the thrumming of lugubrious guitars added to the depression of the triste night. Giant tree-frogs rattled in the foliage as loudly as the end man's "bones" in a minstrel troupe. By nine o'clock the streets were almost deserted. Nor at the consulate was there often a change of bill.
They had obtained an abundance of food; but having no means of lighting a fire, they had been compelled to eat it raw. Their animal food consisted chiefly of young birds, lizards, tree-frogs, and grubs; and their vegetable food, of some plums and other fruits, and the inside leaves of the assai palm, and various nuts.
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