BRITISH AMPHIBIANS 



to the bottom, but as the gelatinous substance with 

 which they are surrounded begins to swell, and thus 

 becomes lighter and more buoyant, the mass of spawn 

 rises to the surface where the warmth of the sun, with 

 the gracious influence of light and air, helps to complete 

 the hatching process. As soon as the dark chocolate- 

 coloured tadpole emerges (and the egg can easily be 

 observed changing shape within the transparent jelly- 

 sphere), it is the owner of external gills, and a fringed 

 sucker on the under part of the head enables it for 

 a time to cling to any surrounding object. In due 

 course the external gills are exchanged for internal ones, 

 and the sucker is discarded, there being no further use 

 for it. The head becomes bull-dog like, the mouth is 

 formed, and the hind limbs appear. The front pair of 

 limbs poke through last of all as, until they emerge, 

 they remain hidden within the gill-chambers. After 

 several weeks, the internal gills disappear, lungs are 

 formed, and the tadpole comes to the water-surface to take 

 in air. It is a vegetarian in diet up to now, but there 

 comes a time when it seems to lose its appetite, and per- 

 haps there is small wonder for this when one realises the 

 wonderful changes taking place both within and without. 

 The tail becomes shorter, the mouth widens, the lip- 

 frills wither, the horny jaws disappear, the eyes pierce 

 the skin, the front pair of legs poke through, and these 

 things completed, the tadpole commences to feed again. 

 But, meanwhile, it has ceased to be a vegetarian, indeed 



has developed the ways of a cannibal, as it will readily 

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