EEPTILES AND AMPHIBIA 177 



Considering the attitude of the pair in copulation it may be 

 suggested that the first step was due to some of the eggs 

 having become pressed between the bodies of the pair at the 

 posterior end, and thus made a fold in the dorsal skin of 

 the female. 



Similar accidents, perhaps necessarily occurring pretty 

 frequently from the habits of the breeding pair, may well 

 have led to the different condition of the dorsal skin in the 

 Surinam toad, Pipa Americana. The skin of the female in 

 the breeding season becomes soft and swollen, and the eggs 

 are embedded one by one by the male in this soft skin, 

 which soon closes over, so that each egg is contained in a 

 separate cell. 



ia 



