192 



AMPHIBIA 



to water, but undergo in that position the greater part of their 

 development ; no gills .have been found in them, only the usual 

 rudiments of lungs. 



(2) B. The eggs of a Papuan frog allied to the Phiynixalus 

 mentioned above ((1) D.), Mantophryne robusta, are strung to- 

 gether by an elastic gelatinous envelope similar to that known 

 in the European Midwife Toad, and, seventeen in number, form 

 a clump over which the male sits, holding it with both hands. 

 The diameter of these eggs is six or seven millimetres, and on 

 the occasion on which they were observed each contained an 

 embryo with well-developed legs, no gills, and a large tail, the 

 membranous lobes of which are rich with capillary vessels and 



Fig. 14. — -Midwife Toad (Alytes obstetricans) : a, male with eggs; b, female. 



act no doubt as a breathing organ. Here again, as in Phrynixa- 

 lus, the mode of development is essentially the same as in 

 H y lodes ; like the latter, and unlike the former, it takes place 

 out of the water. 



(2) C. a. We now come to the well-known example of the 

 Midwife Toad, Alytes obstetricans, discovered in France in the 

 middle of the eighteenth century, in the very act which has 

 rendered it famous. (Fig. 14.) For over a century it, with the 

 equally famous Surinam Toad, remained the only known 

 examples of parental solicitude among the batrachians. 



Pairing and oviposition take place on land. The male first 

 seizes the female round the waist, and when, after having sub- 

 mitted to a process of lubrification of the cloacal region by rapid 



