THE SURINAM TOAD 141 



that the skin closes over them, and each egg becomes partially 

 encysted, and retained in a cell of its own. 1 There they re- 

 main until they are fully incubated, the tadpole stage is 

 passed, and a tiny, but perfect Toad emerges from the skin of 

 its mother's back! 



The number of young usually produced at one hatching 

 is from 60 to 70, and the period of incubation is from seventy- 

 five to eighty-five days. At the close of this process, the 

 thickened layer of skin on the back of the female loses its 

 vitality, and is shed very much as a snake sheds a dead epi- 

 dermis. Although the front feet of the Surinam Toad are 

 small and webless, the hind feet are of great size, fully webbed, 

 and so much drawn in at the ends of the toes that in swim- 

 ming the foot is saucer-shaped. 



There are other frogs which display remarkable intelli- 

 gence in the production of their young, their methods going 

 far beyond what one would expect in creatures as low in the 

 vertebrate scale as the amphibians. As a whole, the members 

 of this Order offer a wide field for the specialist. 



1 For a full description of the process, see the Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society of London, 1896, p. 5i)5. 



