SOME STRANGE NURSING HABITS 343 



americana), as the animal in question is called, was, I 

 believe, only known in Europe by means of specimens 

 preserved in spirit; and we have, therefore, been obliged 

 to depend upon foreign observers for an account of its 

 marvellous life-history. As it differs from other members 

 of its order with regard to its method of bringing up its 

 family, so the Surinam toad is structurally more or less 

 unlike all its kindred, constituting not only a genus, but 

 likewise a family group by itself. Externally it is charac- 

 terised by its short and triangular head, which is furnished 

 with a large flap of skin at each corner of the mouth, and 

 has very minute eyes. The four front toes are quite free, 

 and terminate in expanded star-like tips ; but a large web 

 unites the whole five toes of the hind-foot. In any state 

 the creature is by no means a beauty, but when the female 

 is carrying her nursery about with her she is absolutely 

 repulsive in appearance. It would seem that soon after 

 the eggs are laid, they are taken up by the male and 

 pressed, one by one, into the cells in the thickened skin 

 of his partner's back ; there they grow till they fit closely 

 to the hexagonal form of their prisons, each of which is 

 closed above by a kind of trap-door. After a period of 

 some eighty-two days, the eggs reach their full develop- 

 ment and produce, not tadpoles, but actually perfect little 

 toads. The reason of this is that tadpoles, which require 

 to breathe the air dissolved in water by means of their 

 external gills, could not exist in the cells, and, conse- 

 quently, this stage of the development is passed through 

 very rapidly within the egg. When ready to come forth, 

 the young toads, which are usually from sixty to seventy 

 in number, although there may sometimes be over a 

 hundred, burst cpen the lids of their cells, and, after 

 stretching forth their heads or a limb, make their debut 



