124 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [15:4— Apr., 1,919 



and smaller. If the days are warm, the tadpoles will hatch in four 

 days, and come out tiny particles of life, so small and so active, 

 that it is hard to tell what they look like, until they hang them- 

 selves up to the outside of the remnants of their egg tubes or to 

 nearby plants. They do this by the sticky discs that are on the 

 under side of their heads. 



At first, these little tadpoles have distinct necks, no eyes, or at 

 least very indistinct ones under the skin, and mouths that are mere 

 indentations. Their tails are so small as to be hardly worth the 

 title, and bear but the slightest suggestion of crests. All they can 

 do at this time is to hang themselves right side up so that they 

 won't get smothered, and wiggle their tiny black bodies. They 

 don't need to eat at first because some of the yolk of the eggs they 

 grew from is still there to feed them. Immediately, finger-like 

 gills grow out on each side of the neck, and a fold of skin grows 

 back and covers them, leaving just one hole, the spiracle, on the 

 left side. This leaves the tiny creature without a neck. If you 

 see all this, you will have to watch the "tads" very closely. By 

 this time, the eyes are on the surface, the sticky discs that held 

 them up are disappearing, and little round mouths have developed 

 which have homy jaws and several rows of horny teeth on the lips. 

 These teeth help the little tadpole scrape off its tiny particles of 

 food from the plants and "scum' ' that is in the pond. A prominent 

 rather milky looking crest has appeared on the round tipped tail 

 and little tadpole is having a lively time. He is now a mature tad- 

 pole, and is dark brown or black in color and spotted with tiny 

 gold and silvery spots. He breathes the air that is in the water by 

 taking water into his mouth which then passes over his gills and out 

 the spiracle. He grows larger and larger, until measuring from 

 the tip of his head to the tip of his tail, he may be a little over an 

 inch long. His food is tiny particles of vegetable or animal matter 

 that he can scrape up around the pond. He keeps very busy doing 

 this for he cannot stop growing for a minute. 



He must get ready to become a grown up toad. He must lose 

 his little round mouth with its homy jaws, and develop a real toad 

 mouth with bony jaws. All his bones must develop rapidly. He 

 must have lungs to breathe air, and as these grow, he keeps coming 

 to the surface of the pond to try them out. As he grows older, he 

 comes more and more often to the surface, and takes more and 

 more air. His legs start out as tiny buds, and as they grow develop 



