136 



DISCOGLOSSIDJ]. 



window. Discoglossus cannot be described as mute, 

 but its voice is certainly the feeblest among all our 

 members of the tailless tribe. 



The pairing season extends from January, in 

 Algeria, to September and October, and the female 

 is able to spawu three times in the year. The 



embrace, which never lasts 



Fig. 52. 



J**0*ik^ 



long, 



is lumbar, the 



Male and female pairing. 



male's hands joining on the pubic region. The re- 

 markably small eggs are produced slowly, one at a 

 time, and feebly adhere to the bottom of the pool or 

 tank, where they form a single layer, more or less 

 closely set. Only exceptionally have I found eggs 

 attached to the weeds with which I had furnished the 

 small tank in the terrarium, the pair keeping to the 

 bottom during oviposition. The spermatozoa, which 

 from their large size can be detected with the naked 

 eye, are ejaculated in several bundles. 



The larvae, as a rule, live only from one to two 

 months before transforming, and keep small, being in 

 this respect comparable to those of the common toad ; 

 but tadpoles born late in the summer may remain for 

 nine or ten months in that condition. 



Specimens which I received from Algeria in January 

 and February, 1897, although in apparently excellent 

 health and readily feeding on worms and insects, did 



