432 



LAND ANIMALS 



The warm air constantly saturated with moisture makes the tropi- 

 cal rain-forests a paradise for tailless amphibians ; slender forms from 

 many families are almost entirely arboreal in habit, so much so that 

 they do not descend to deposit their eggs in water as is the usual 

 habit for amphibians. Certain of them, such as Polypedates in the 

 Old World and Phyllomedusa in the New, lay their eggs in leafy sacs 

 on branches that overhang the water into which the larvae fall on 



Fig. 118. — Female of the tropical American frog Cerathyla bubalus, carrying 

 eggs attached to her back. After Boulenger. 



hatching. Frogs of the genus Eleutherodactylus, with some hundred 

 species in tropical America, glue their large eggs to a leaf, place 

 them in the axils of leaves, or conceal them beneath stones. The young 

 go through a curtailed metamorphosis in the egg and hatch in adult 

 form. Still others carry their eggs about until the young emerge as 

 adults (Fig. 118). 40 Many of these species have been seen but seldom, 

 and the number of individuals is estimated principally by the many- 

 voiced chorus of the males after sundown. 



The relatively abundant 41 but voiceless reptilian life of these forests 

 attracts still less attention. Aquatic or semi-aquatic forms may usually 

 be seen along watercourses. Lizards are more abundant within the 

 forest than are snakes. These forest lizards belong principally to four 



