RANINAE 



243 



from Continental Africa, a few from Madagascar and the islands 

 in the Indian Ocean. 



A. seychellensis. — -Brauer ^ has discovered the mode of nursing 

 of this frog. He found a specimen of A. seychellensis which carried 

 nine tadpoles on its back, in the month of August, in the Sey- 

 chelles, about 1500 feet above sea-level, upon an old tree-fern. The 

 littlQ ones were ah-eady provided with long tails, the hind-limbs 

 were partly free, the fore-limbs still covered by the skin, and 

 they held on by their bellies ; not, like the young of Phyllolates, 

 by their " suckers." Another specimen carried young which were 

 still further developed. He also found 

 an old frog, near wdiich was lying a little 

 heap of eggs, not enveloped in a common 

 mass of jelly. The old frog escaped, but 

 the eggs were taken care of in a vessel 

 with moist sand at the bottom. By the 

 following morning the eggs were hatched 

 and the tadpoles were clinging by their „ ,^ ..,,.. 



^ o o J Fig. 4/. — Arthroleptis seychel- 



bellies on to the walls of the glass. lensis, carrying Tadpoles. 



Brauer concludes that the young, when ^ ^- ^^^^^^ Brauer.) 

 hatched, creep on to the parents' back, he or she waiting near the 

 heap of eggs until the latter are ready. Curiously enough, he did 

 not find out the sex of the nurse, nor are we told if the young are 

 taken to the nearest water to finish their metamorphosis, or if they 

 remain upon the parent's back until they hop off as baby -frogs. 

 The yolk is very large. When the four limbs are already 

 developed, the gill -cavity possesses no gills and no outer opening ; 

 and since the lungs are only just beginning to sprout, the tad- 

 pole must needs breathe by means of its skin. The jaws have 

 no horny coverings. The adults live on the ground between 

 moist leaves, and eat chiefly termites. 



Cornufer, with about twelve species, is an essentially Austro- 

 Malayan and Polynesian genus, but one species, C. johnstoni, has 

 been found in the Cameroons. The fingers and toes are free, 

 and their T-shaped phalanges support adhesive discs. The 

 tympanum is distinct. The general shape is frog-like, usually 

 with slender and very long hind-limbs and toes, the discs of the 

 latter being much smaller than those of the fingers. The coloration 

 is dull, mostly brown, more or less marbled, whitish below. The 



^ Zool. Jahrh. Sysf. xii. 1898, p. 89. 



