on each side; in one genus the first toe is opposible to the others, thus forming a sort of hand.
The early history of the Tree-frogs does not differ materially from that of their humbler terrestrial brethren. The eggs are laid in the water, in which the Tadpoles spend their existence; and in temperate climates the perfect animals resort to the same element to spend the winter in a torpid insensibility.
The sixty-four species which MM. Duméril and Bibron enumerate as belonging to this Family are thus distributed:—one is found in southern Europe; five are peculiar to Africa; eight to Asia; ten to Australasia and the Indian Archipelago; and thirty-seven to America. Of three species, the native locality is unrecorded.
Genus Hyla. (Laur.)
The extreme elegance and beauty of the European Tree-frog (Hyla viridis, Laur.) have made it a general favourite wherever known. It is small and of slender proportions; the upper parts are of a delicate green, the inferior parts white; on each side of the body runs down a stripe of yellow bordered with violet or purple, extending along the limbs. It is spread over the whole of southern Europe, extending also into North Africa, but is not a native of Great Britain. During winter it remains torpid at the bottom of ponds, but through the balmy months of summer this beautiful little creature resides in trees, principally resorting to the higher branches, where it leaps to and fro, or
