36 



STORY OF THE AMPHIBIANS 



rounding, while joung and plastic, without waiting 

 for generations of the survival of those best fitted to 

 it bj mere accident. 



Another species nearly akin, the nototrema, or 

 pouched frog, hatches all of its many eggs within the 

 body (Fig. 18). 



It is said that in some kinds of csecilians the 

 young are born alive in the water, while another 

 species certainly lays rather large eggs in a burrow 

 near the water, and the mother coils above them and 



hatches them out, 

 like a hen. If so 

 this is probably the 

 first instance of real 

 incubation in na- 

 ture. Some others 

 which must have 

 water to hatch their 

 eggs, resort to queer 

 methods to get it. 

 One little West In- 

 dies tree-toad (Hy- 

 lodes) lays her eggs 

 at the point where 

 the leaf joins the 

 trunk in palms or 

 similar trees. Here 

 little pockets of 

 water are found 

 after rains. Another of the same group takes the 

 matter more by faith still. At the time when she 



Fig. 18. — Pouched frog (Noiotrema mar- 

 supiatum). The brood-pouch opened 

 to show the eggs. 



