A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



tadpoles, which have already hatched in their foamy bed, but are 

 already mobile, and able to wriggle quickly away from their enemies. 

 In Petropolis a small brown green-speckled frog with an orange 

 patch on its back was very common ; wherever a brook ran over the 

 rocks one heard its faint, clicking voice, like the stroke of a tiny 

 hammer on metal. This Petropolis frog was not easy to detect, as 

 its colouring resembled that of the moss on the stones, and it squeezed 

 itself flat upon the latter, while extending its legs. It lays its eggs 

 on the leaves overhanging a brook; when the tadpoles creep out of 

 the eggs and begin to wriggle their tails, the surrounding foam is 

 liquefied, and they drop into the brook, where one finds them 

 writhing like snakes between the stones, hardly covered by the water. 

 Other creatures too remove their eggs, which as 

 nourishing and tasty titbits are relished by many 

 creatures, from the dangerous neighbourhood of the 

 water. In Pernambuco and Parahyba I was enchanted 

 by the handsome bunches of orange-red eggs, as big 

 as peas, which I found everywhere in the thickets 

 overhanging the tanks and ponds, sometimes sur- 

 rounding a pond as with a necklace of coral beads, 

 which was visible at some distance. These were the 

 ^^1 ' ^A ^^^^^ eggs of the Brazilian Operculate Snail, a large 

 by a Cat-froe ^^llusc, whose shell is not unlike that of the European 

 (Phyllome- Vineyard Snail, but can be closed by means of a lid, 



dusa Ihenngi) which enables the inmates to sleep for years without 



and contain- j r j • i* •tx^' m u- u i 



,, danger oi desiccation. I his snail, which commonly 



ing the eggs , ° , ' ' 



lives in the water, and breathes through gills, has 

 also a pulmonary cavity which is filled with air; and this air is 

 supplied to the body through a conduit, the edges of the body folding 

 over to form a tube. 



But to return to our Frogs ! The Cat-frogs are pretty green Tree- 

 frogs, the pupils of whose eyes are vertical slits, as in the cat. These 

 frogs also hang their eggs over the water. Male and female climb 

 into a tree, pull down a hanging leaf, and while with their hind- 

 feet they press the edges of the leaf together the female lays her 

 eggs in the tube so formed, and the male immediately fertilizes 

 them. The glutinous jelly surrounding the eggs holds the edges of 

 the leaf together. Another species of Cat-frog glues several leaves 

 round the clutch, forming a regular bag, which hangs over the water, 

 and from which the tadpoles fall when they leave the eggs (Fig. 17). 



In the virgin forest of Para Gocldi observed a Tree-frog which 

 272 



