80 Miscellaneous. 



be distinguished in the form of a simple vascular loop : the limbs are 

 still styliform ; but the proper movements of the young animal are 

 already manifested when the egg is pressed. 



On the fifth day the heart, as well as the branchiae, are visible 

 to the naked eye. The circulatory system has become perfect. 



On the sixth day the feet are well formed, and the toes appear. 

 The tail, on the contrary, shows signs of atrophy. The branchiae 

 are still perceptible ; but their absorption has also commenced. 



On the seventh day the branchiae have disappeared, and the tail 

 withers and folds. 



On the eighth day the coloration, which began to show itself on 

 the fifth day, increases throughout ; and even some markings are pro- 

 duced at certain points. The tail disappears, and then the vessels 

 which nourished it. 



On the ninth or tenth day the eggs hatch. The vitellus, which 

 is pretty voluminous in the young tree -frog, is still very visible through 

 the walls of the abdomen ; but this does not prevent the animal from 

 leaping and being very free in its movements. 



During incubation the gelatinous mass interposed between the 

 chorion and the vitellus swells up considerably, so that the diameter of 

 the egg becomes as much as 6 millims. When one of these greatly 

 inflated eggs is opened there issues from it a considerable quantity 

 of a clear liquid, in which the young animal floated. 



M. Bavay puts forward the supposition that nearly pure water 

 penetrates through the chorion into the cavity occupied by the em- 

 bryo and its vitellus, and that it is in this water that the rotatory 

 and voluntary movements of the embryo are performed. It would 

 be in this aerated liquid that it would respire — -at first by its branchiae, 

 and afterwards by the whole surface of its blastoderm. Eespiration 

 would be effected especially, during this second phase, by vessels 

 which, starting from each side of the neck, pass into the vitellus, at 

 the surface of which they develop abundant ramifications. A re- 

 markable fact is that the appearance of these vessels coincides with 

 the commencement of the withering of the branchiae. — Revue des Sci. 

 Nat. tome i. 1872, p. 281, and Journ. de Zoo 1 , tome ii. 1873, p. 13 ; 

 Bibl. Univ. June 15, 1873, Bull. Sci. p. 155. 



Mode of Walking of the Armadilloes. 



Mr. Bartlett has kindly examined for me the way of walking of 

 the living armadilloes in the Zoological Gardens. He observes that 

 Chcetopliractus villosus and C. vellerosus walk on the tips of their toes 

 like Xenurus. Euphractus minutus, belonging to the same family as 

 the preceding, and Tatusia peba, T. hybrida, and Praopus Kappleri, 

 belonging to the family Tatusiadae, walk on the palms of the fore 

 feet, with the claws spreading out and the tips elevated from the 

 soil. — J. E. Gray. 



