352 



therefore, that the ravages attributed to canker-worms after 

 this date, were in reality committed by this new species. 



Dr. Burnett alluded to the fact that it is not uncommon to 

 find toads in such a situation as to make it highly impro- 

 bable that they could have gone through the usual stages of 

 the tadpole state under the ordinary circumstances. He 

 mentioned, that his attention had been recently called to the 

 fact of their existence in great numbers in a garden in the 

 vicinity of Boston, where there was no water for their tad- 

 pole existence, and where it was impossible that they could 

 have entered from without. He referred to the opinions 

 of Naturalists on this subject, as follows : 



Lowe (Ann. Nat. Hist. XL, April, 1853, p. 341) notices the 

 improbability of toads having passed through the larval or tad- 

 pole slate, in cases of their appearance in places where there is 

 no water, and where it is impossible that they should have come 

 from distant brooks. 



Jenyns, (Ibid. XL, June, p. 483,) who has observed reptile life, 

 agrees with Lowe in his hypothesis, and thinks that gills never 

 existed, or disappeared very shortly after birth. 



It would also appear that like facts were noticed by many of 

 the older Naturalists, Shaw, Ray, and others, who regarded them 

 as indicative of the viviparity of these animals. 



The anurous Batrachians have, as is well known, no copu- 

 latory organs, the fecundation taking place as the eggs escape, by 

 the semen which is spread over them by the male. It is there- 

 fore highly improbable that there is viviparity as in the case of 

 some snakes, (VVatersnake, Rattlesnake, &c.); the young are 

 probably brought forth as tadpoles, but soon lose the peculiarities 

 of their larval state, and acquire, prematurely, the functional con- 

 ditions of terrestrial animals. 



Dr. Burnett presented specimens of the young toads 

 which he had spoken of, and which were, he said, smaller 

 than any fully developed toads he had ever seen, which had 

 passed through the tadpole state in the ordinary way. 



