588 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



trees this species probably deserves the name of tree toad more than 

 any of the other species of the genus inhatjiting- these islands. A 

 favorite place of concealment during the day we found to be the axils 

 of the leaves of palms and liliaceous plants, but it was also caught 

 under the bark of trees, fallen logs, stones, or in crevices in the rocks, 

 cla}" banks, or in holes in trees. 



They keep usually quiet during the day, ])ut tow^ard dusk the}^ 

 come out from their hiding places and the island then l)egins to 

 resound with their call notes. These I believe to be different in the 

 adults and the young. The former utter a loud and rather sonorous 

 o-ki'-ki'-ki' or simply a persistently repeated o-ki', o-ki' , 

 The chorus of soft "pit, pit, pit"" around our camp in the evening I 

 attributed to the young ones. 



Living specimens placed in a glass jar adhere to the sides chiefl}^ by 

 their digital pads or disks. The bell}^ is tlattened against the glass, 

 but there is apparently no special adhesive area. 



The reproduction of this species is most extraordinary in that the 

 young escape from the egg a full developed frog without undergoing 

 any tadpole stage or metamorphosis. The eggs are usually deposited 

 in the damp axils of an air plant, about 20 to 80 in a lump. The de- 

 velopment of the young in the egg is remarkable for the fact that the 

 anterior and posterior limbs appear simultaneously and that there is 

 no trace of gills. In al^out three weeks the young escape from the 

 egg, the only sign of immaturity being a short rudiment of tail which 

 is absorl)ed, however, in a few hours. The discovery of this extraor- 

 dinary ])atrachian development, which so strongly foreshadows that of 

 the amniote vertebrates, was made by Dr. Bello y Espinosa in 1870 

 and has been confirmed and elaborated by Gundlach and Peters. 



List of fipecies of Eleutherodactylus auriculatns. 



