THE MUSEUM. 



339 



Fossil Shark Tooth, Pentremite, Ind., Trilobite, 

 Calamene senaria, Ohio, Trilobite, Calamene, 

 Niagarensis, Ohio and New York, Crinoid 

 head, Indiana. 



Breeding Habits of Toads. 



It was stated that a correspondent 

 of Meehan's Monthly inquired how it 

 was possible to find toads no larger 

 than peas if the tadpole is the first 

 stage of toad life. The reply of the 

 Monthly was to the effect that toads 

 are oviparous or viviparous according 

 as water is or is not accessible. This 

 is not quite true. 



Every toad passes through the tad- 

 pole stage, however far he may be 

 from the water, and no case is known 

 of a toad bearing young alive, but all 

 toads and frogs lay eggs. It is true 

 that some forms pass through the tad- 

 pole stage while still in the egg, and 

 others carry their young in various 

 ways until the tadpole period is passed, 



but none of them ever bear young 

 alive, as viviparous in its true sense 

 would imply. 



It may be interesting to note some 

 of the curious breeding habits of toads. 

 The remarkable toad of South Amer- 

 ica, /^//rt amcricana, is the most extra- 

 ordinary. The eggs are laid by the 

 female, and are immediately trans- 

 ferred by the male to the back of the 

 female, to which they adhere and 

 where they are impregnated. The 

 skin of the back is excited into in- 

 creased activity by the presence of the 

 eggs, and gradually grows up around 

 each egg, until it is enclosed in a 

 pouch. 



Here the eggs develop, passing 

 through the tadpole stage, and when 

 the form of the adult is reached the 

 little fellows emerge and take up an 

 independent existence. Pouches filled 

 with eggs, to the number of one hun- 

 dred and fourteen, have been observed 

 on the back of a single female. This 

 is the only case among the Batrachia 

 in which the young are nourished at 

 the expense of the parent, but even 

 this toad could not be called vivipar- 

 ous. 



Another interesting form is the ob- 

 stetrical toad of middle Europe. The 

 eggs are laid by the female in a long 

 albuminous string which is taken by the 

 male and wound about his body and 

 thighs. The albumen dries and the 

 eggs become fastened to his body and 

 there remain until hatched. 



The species Nototrema and Opis- 

 thodelphys of Peru carry their eggs in 

 a pocket formed by the unfolding of 

 the skin of the back; the young of the 

 former leave the egg while tadpoles, 

 those of the latter pass through their 



