220 WHERE ROLLS THE OREGON 



away with him into the deep dark waters of the 

 pond. 



We find the undeveloped mother in groups 

 still higher up the scale among the toads and 

 reptiles, and even among the birds and mam- 

 mals ; but the higher we ascend the more pro- 

 nounced and constant becomes the mother-pas- 

 sion in the female, and the more variable, weak, 

 and intermittent its manifestation among the 

 males. 



A curious sharing of mother-qualities by male 

 and female is shown in the Surinam toads of 

 South America, where the male, taking the newly 

 deposited eggs, places them with his own hands 

 upon the back of the female. Here, glued fast by 

 their adhesive jelly, they are soon surrounded by 

 fresh-formed cells, each cell capped by a lid. In 

 these cells the eggs hatch and the young go 

 through their metamorphoses, apparently absorb- 

 ing some nourishment through the skin of their 

 mother, until they break through the lids of their 

 cells finally and hop away. They might as well 

 be toadstools on a dead stump, so far as motherly 

 care or concern goes, for, aside from allowing the 

 male to spread the eggs upon her back, she is no 



