176 Mr. G. A. Boulenger on 
And further (t. c. p. 281), alluding to Alytes, “ Les males 
sont, chez cette espéce comme chez les autres, bien plus 
nombreux que les femelles.” 
1 know that contradictory statements on this subject have 
been made, by Leydig among others, but I can only say that 
my experience coincides entirely with Lataste’s *, and parti- 
cularly in the case of A/ytes, of which I have come across 
hundreds of specimens in France and in Belgium f. This is 
corroborated by the fact, which anyone may verify, that if, in 
spring or early summer, a large number are caught at random 
in the open or pulled out of their retreats, a much greater 
proportion of males without eggs will be found than of 
nursing individuals, notwithstanding the well-known ability 
of the male to attend to two or even three females in 
succession. 
It is therefore surprising to me that Kammerer (4, pp. 101— 
104), in his Mendelian experiments, should find an equal or 
not very unequal number of mature individuals of either 
seX :— 
1st generation: 29 reared to the adult condition, 12 3,17 9. 
2nd sy, 44 ” ” ” 22 ,, 22 ,, 
ord ” 72 ” ” ” 43, 29 ,, 
At the outset of his experiments he operated on a number 
of specimens sent to him by Dr. C. Hartmann, a dentist in 
Munster, Westphalia, and this lot consisted of 14 males and 
21 females (1, p. 69; 2, p. 455), a remarkable fact con- 
sidering that Hartmann himself t says that he is unable to 
distinguish surely the sexes externally ; the explanation may 
be, however, that the largest specimens were chosen in 
preference. A further surprising statement (1, p. 69; 2, 
. 454) in connection with the Hartmann specimens is. that 
all the males «should have bred three nights after their 
* As Lataste has not mentioned Bombinator, I may add that, out of 
five small series of L. pachypus in the British Museum from France, Italy, 
Roumania, and Greece, collected at random, there are 26 males and only 
7 temales. I do not mention other series of the same species in the 
Museum because, collected by myself, they are to be considered as a 
selection in which the sexes have not been overlooked. 
+ Just after writing these lines I have received (June 21) six Alytes 
collected without discrimination of the sexes in a garden in Bedford, 
where they have established themselves for some years, and five are males, 
two carrying eggs, 
t ‘Natural Science,’ viii. 1896, p. 894. Also an article in ‘Natur und 
Haus,’ reproduced in Brehw’s ‘ Tierleben,’ 4th ed. (1912), i. p. 1938. 
