THE SMOOTH-CLAWED FROG 



has gone down to posterity as having kept Horace awake 

 during his journey to Brundusium. 



THE PLAATHANDE 



The examples of Pipa in the Zoological Gardens were 

 separated from some frogs in another and neighbouring 

 case by a tank, in which a few tortoises disport them- 

 selves. The two frogs are also separated in nature by a 

 more considerable tank, also full of turtles, the Atlantic 

 ocean. On the American side lives the Surinam toad, 

 and on the African the plaathande of the Dutch colo- 

 nists, known to science as Xenopus or Dactylethra Icevis, 

 the " smooth-clawed frog." The two frogs and a third 

 and less known genus are commonly associated together 

 into a group called Aglossa, on account of the absence of 

 a tongue, and by virtue of other peculiarities which give 

 them an isolated place among frogs and toads. Like 

 Pipa, Xenopus rarely leaves the water, and our illustra- 

 tion shows its characteristic pose when doing nothing in 

 particular, a form of action in which it is a proficient. 

 It has a flat back when it can be induced to sprawl awk- 

 wardly about upon dry land, and does not sit up in the 

 perky fashion of Rana, or even of the lugubrious Bufo. 

 The latter present an appearance of a breakage in the 

 back, which is really due to the projection forwards of 

 the bones of the hip girdle. While most frogs are noisy, 

 Xenopus does not by any means make the welkin ring. 

 No sleep would be averted by these marshy frogs. The 

 very ghost of a croak, described as " Tick-tick," and not 

 the virile " Brek : ek-ek-ek coax coax " of Southern 

 Europe, of to-day as well as in Aristophanes' time, is all 

 that they produce. And even this requires the tender 

 passion for its excitement. It is only in the breeding 

 season that the frogs make vocal the neighbouring 

 glades. Another characteristic of the lower amphibia 

 shown by the Plaathande is its habit of laying eggs not 



290 





