_Limnodynastes_ is one of the commonest genera in Australia. The six species have the habits and appearance of stout frogs or smooth toads. _L. dorsalis_ seems to range through the whole of Australia, from east to west, and looks like the European _Pelobates_. The skin is smooth, but with an elongated white gland extending from beneath the eye to the shoulder, and another glandular complex on the thigh. The upper parts are mottled olive-brown, often with a light vertebral line. The under parts are whitish, with brown spots. The male has a vocal sac. One of the specimens in the National Collection contained a half-grown _Heleioporus albopunctatus_ in its stomach. {223}Concerning the pairing and the other habits of the Anura of New South Wales we have some valuable notes by J. J. Fletcher.[97] He observes that Australian frogs spawn whenever they are ready, and when the very irregular conditions of moisture will allow it, but that they are not all ready at the same time, _i.e._ they have no fixed period of the year. _Limnodynastes_, _Hyla aurea_, and _H. coerulea_ deposit their spawn in the water, in more or less irregular floating patches, which look white and frothy. The period extends from July to May, and is at its height in August and September; but if there is a spring-drought vigorous spawning may be looked for about the middle of January, when heavy showers are likely to occur. _Crinia_ and several _Hyla_, e.g. _H. ewingi_, spawn at any time of the year. The eggs form small submerged bunches, enclosed in a transparent jelly, attached to the blades of grass or twigs of dead branches in the water. _Pseudophryne_, a genus closely resembling _Crinia_, but on account of the absence of teeth in the lower jaw relegated to the Bufonidae, spawns during the Australian summer and autumn. The numerous ova of _P. australis_ and _P. bibroni_ are laid separately, not in the water, but under stones, or in the débris of reed- and grass-tussocks, on the edge of a pool. The larvae of _Pseudophryne_ and others have often to depend upon the next following rain, sometimes waiting for months to be released from the eggs, wherein they have so far developed. But the tadpoles, once hatched, probably do not bury themselves; they either metamorphose or die. The males of _Mixophyes_ and _Hyla_, grasp the females in the axillary region; those of _Limnodynastes_, _Hyperolia_, _Crinia_, and _Pseudophryne_ throw their arms round the inguinal or lumbar region. For some three months during the winter, commencing about May, the frogs, like lizards and snakes, resort to shelter under logs and stones, beneath which they are then to be met with in a more or less sleepy condition. During the hot and very dry periods many bury themselves in the drying-up mud, which becomes very hard, and does not release them until the next rains. They croak during showery times of the year. There is no evidence that any Australian species live in the high _Eucalyptus_-trees.