THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 213 



in that while refuting one error it gives the sanction of the 

 writer's authority to two others : 



Sir,— It seems strange, considering the great number of books 

 published upon natural history subjects, that the mode of reproduction 

 of an animal well known upwards of a hundred years ago, and figured 

 and described over and over again, should yet remain a subject of doubt 

 and uncertainty. This is, however, the case with the Surinam toad. The 

 statements made with reference to its mode of reproduction are certainly 

 not reliable. In the first place, the female Surinam toad does not deposit 

 her eggs on land to be afterwards placed upon her back by the male before 

 she enters the water, simply because these animals never come on land, but 

 are strictly aquatic. 



It is also somewhat doubtful whether it is the female that carries the 

 eggs. In a well-known species (the midwife toad) the female deposits her 

 eggs upon the male, who carries them about until they are hatched. The 

 living specimens of the Surinam toads in these Gardens have aflforded me 

 the opportunity of carefully examining one of these animals, an hour or 

 two after the eggs had appeared upon its back. I was struck with 

 astonishment at their regular and symmetrical arrangement and their 

 smooth and very uniform condition. This led Mr. Arthur Thomson (who 

 has taken great interest in the subject) to suggest that the eggs had been 

 protruded from under the skin on to the back of the creature, instead of 

 having been placed there by the male, and this appears to be the most 

 likely solution of this very singular and remarkable mode of reproduction. 

 I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



A. D. BARTLETT. 

 Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, December 8. 



But dissection established the fact that the egg-bearing 

 toad was the female ; and at least ten years before any living 

 specimens of these amphibians reached the Gardens Martin 

 Duncan had described the cavities which give the back of the 

 female a honeycombed appearance, and each of which had 

 contained an egg. " The question is," he said, " how did the egg 

 get into this extraordinary position ? Certainly it would not be 

 deposited there by the mother; and equally certainly there is 

 no passage from the egg-producing structures in her body to 

 the cavities."^ 



In 1896 the mystery was solved. Two males were seen 

 clasping two females round the lower part of the body, and on 

 the next morning Tennant, one of the keepers (now money- 

 taker at the North Entrance), was so fortunate as to witness the 



* " CasseU's Natural History," iv. 361. 



