CERATODUS FORSTERI 



frog, but in festooned ropes, consisting of a single row of 

 eggs, which are connected by glutinous matter, and 

 moored by it to handy rocks and stones. This provi- 

 sion of nature is very intelligible in view of the localities 

 in which Megalobatrachus dwells. For in rapidly- 

 moving streams the eggs, if laid singly and without 

 this viscous protection, would be liable to be carried off 

 and destroyed in the sea. As it is they remain anchored 

 safely until the appearance of the young. The lady 

 salamander, having done her duty in producing the eggs, 

 leaves the equally important task of watching over them 

 to her mate, who is so assiduous that he will not even 

 allow the mother to visit her progeny, but at once drives 

 her away. The little salamanders when they leave the 

 egg are about an inch long, and they have, like the 

 larvae of other amphibians, external branching out- 

 growths, which are the gills. 



THE MUD FISH 



The mud fish of Australia, Ceratodus forsteri, is one 

 of the latest additions of importance to zoological litera- 

 ture. Before the year 1870 it had inhabited unremarked 

 its native rivers ; in that year it was for the first time 

 described, and to the Zoological Society. It is pecu- 

 liarly appropriate therefore that the first living speci- 

 mens to reach Europe were those acquired by the 

 Zoological Society and deposited in the Gardens a year 

 or two back. The pair now in the Reptile House are 

 believed to be a pair, that is, a male and female ; but 

 they have shown no anxiety to prove this view by lay- 

 ing eggs ; this, however, is a matter for less regret at 

 the present moment, since the breeding habits of the 

 fish and the nature of its hatched-out larvae have been 

 made known to us by Dr. Semon, who voyaged to the 

 remote spots, selected by Ceratodus as a dwelling-place, 



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