TREE-TO ' 186 



spawn af two seasons instead of one, and thai their la 

 attain a greater size than those of other frogs before com- 

 pleting tln-ir metamorphos 



Among the tree-toads, Polype of tropical Western 



Africa, contrary to the usual habits <>f frogs, depos ts ite 



in a mass of jelly attached to the leavi - of trees which 

 border the shore overhanging a pond. On the arrival of 



the rainy season, thi eg c washed into ti 



below, where they develop. Our common piping tree-toad 

 (ffyla Pickcringii), about the middle of April, in the 



hern States, attaches her eggs singly to aquatic plants. 

 The young are hatched in about twelve days. 



M -- Hinckley has described the habits of tho larger \ 

 toad {Hyla versicolor, Fig. 231). The eggs are attached 

 from early May till duly, singly and in small groups in 

 grass which grow s up and rest- on the water. The tadpoles 

 hatch in two days. In a week after the tadpoles appear 

 the gills are absorbed. Meanwhile the tadpoles hang by 

 their "holder-/' <'f suckers <>n the lips, to the leaves, as 

 seen in the engraving. When about three weeks old the 

 hind lees 'i to hud out in front of the base of the tail. 



During the eighth week they take little f 1: the four 



grow out, the tail disappears, the mouth becomes ad a] 

 fur seizing and eating insects, and they leave the water. 

 This tree-toad depends for safety on its power of changing 



olor from green to gray; it hides among leaves, or in 

 crevices in the hark <'f trees, when it becomes "lil 



part of the hark of the tl*C< " 



As an l sample of what i< called a sup] lor- 



phosis may he cited the case of a tree-toad in the island ..f 

 Guadaloupo. There arc no marshes on this island, 

 quently in a species of Wyhdes the development of the 

 vonnff 18 direct: they hatch from tie which are laid 



under moist leaves, without tails, and are other 

 cepl in Bize, like the adults. (1 'her hand, a tne- 



toad of the island of Martinique ( // Mart 



Fig. £32) has tadpoles, which it carries on its hack. The 



