VIVIPAROUS AMPHIBIANS 



37 



lays tliere is usually a drought. So she places her 

 eggs on limbs of trees above dried-up pools. Here 

 they dry up also 

 and are preserved, 

 and when the rains 

 finally come they 

 are washed off and 

 hatch in the pool 

 below. Other spe- 

 cies deposit them 

 on the bottoms of 

 dried pools. 



Some toads have 

 learned how to get 

 along without wa- 

 ter at any time. In 

 the island of Gua- 

 deloupe, where 

 marshes are not 

 found, a little toad 

 places its eggs under damp leaves, and the whole tad- 

 pole-state is run within the egg, and the young come 

 forth perfect. 



Tliere are various stages of taking care of the tad- 

 poles when they form, without allowing them to re- 

 main in the water. It is well known that the female 

 Surinam toad has a pitted skin at the breeding season, 

 and that the male takes up the eggs and with his fore 

 paws presses them into these pits. Here they swell, 

 after the female enters the water, till each fills its cell, 

 when a covering grows over them and remains till they 



Fig. 19.— Tree-frog of Dutch Guiana ( Hy- 

 IodesI'niiatHs\ with tadpoles attached to 

 her back. They do not fall off even 

 when she leaps rapidly away. 



