AMPHIBIANS—GOIN 437 
a number of eggs, one at a time, with his tongue and slides them 
down into his vocal pouch. Here the young pass the larval stage. 
They do not emerge until metamorphosis is completed. Although it 
lacks a free-living larval period, the developing frog is for a time 
completely tadpolelike. 
The tiny Sminthillus limbatus of Cuba lays one large-yolked egg 
on Jand which hatches into a fully formed frog. 
Dendrobatidae.—The little poison frogs are apparently rather uni- 
form in the fact that the male carries the tadpoles on his back until 
he deposits them in a body of quiet, casual water. In Dendrobates au- 
ratus, the male has no definite calling site but makes a low buzzing 
sound as he moves about over the ground on a morning after a rain. 
Usually a male will be followed by several females, some of which 
will actually jump on him. He is apparently aware of his admirers 
because if pursuit lags, he slows down and becomes more vociferous. 
Finally he dives beneath the wet leaf mold and is followed by a fe- 
male. The details of mating are not known and in fact it is not even 
sure that it does take place under these situations. It is known, how- 
ever, that the female lays on land from one to six rather large-yolked 
eggs which are surrounded by an irregular, sticky, gelatinous material 
with no definite external film. These eggs hatch in about 2 weeks. The 
male either guards or visits the clutch, and the newly hatched tad- 
poles wriggle onto his back. Some time later he moves to the water 
and the tadpoles slide off. Tadpole-carrying males have been noted 
in trees quite some distance from water, although it may be that they 
were carrying tadpoles up to tree holes which contained water. Tad- 
poles collected in water have been known to live for at least 42 days 
before transformation. Similar habits are shown by the related 
genera, Phyllobates and Prostherapis, although apparently the num- 
ber of tadpoles carried by an individual male is greater. In Phyl- 
lobates, males have been found carrying as many as 15 tadpoles, and 
tadpole-carrying males of this genus have been seen as far as a quarter 
of a mile from water. A specimen of Prostherapis fuliginosus has 
been taken with 25 tadpoles on the back. 
Atelopodidae.—As far as I know, the brightly colored little toads 
of this family exhibit aquatic breeding habits with indirect develop- 
ment—that is, the eggs are laid in water and pass through a tadpole 
stage before transformation. 
Hylidae—tThe tree frogs have very diverse life histories. One 
group comprises a few genera of South American frogs placed to- 
gether in the subfamily Hemiphractinae. These include Crypto- 
batrachus, Hemiphractus, Gastrotheca, and Amphignathodon. While 
typically hylid in appearance, these frogs have the habit of carrying 
eggs in a mass on the back of the female. In some, this mass is im- 
bedded in or covered by a fold of skin which forms a veritable sac as 
