104 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



had seen it come down in a slanting direction, from a 

 high tree, as if it flew. On examining it I found the toes 

 very long and fully webbed to their extremity, so that 

 when expanded they offered a surface much larger than 

 the body. The fore legs were also bordered by a mem- 

 brane, and the body was capable of considerable inflation. 

 The body was about four inches long, while the webs of 

 all the feet covered a space of about twelve square inches. 

 As the creature was a tree frog, it is difficult to imagine 

 that this immense membrane of the toes can be for the 

 purpose of swimming only, and the account of the China- 

 men that it flew down from the tree becomes more 

 credible." 



There are species of frogs and toads, some of them 

 not otherwise different from their fellows, the young of 

 which do not form gills, but develop some other breath- 

 ing organs in their place. Thus, there is a kind of tree 

 frog, belonging to the genus Hylodes, which has the 

 habit of laying its eggs singly in the axils of leaves, and 

 the only water they can obtain is the drop or two which 

 may from time to time be retained there. The young is, 

 most strange to say, provided with a special breathing organ 

 in its tail. Another frog, with yet another abnormality, 

 has been recently discovered by Mr. Guppy in the Solomon 

 Islands. He tells us : " During a descent from one of 

 the peaks of Faro Island, I stopped at a stream some 400 

 feet above the sea, where my native boys collected from 

 the moist crevices of the rocks close to the water a 

 number of transparent, gelatinous balls, rather smaller 

 than a marble. Each of these balls contained a young 

 frog, about four lines in length. On my rupturing the 

 ball, the tiny frog took a marvellous leap into existence, 

 and disappeared before I could catch it." 



Thus these frogs are never tadpoles, nor was anything 



