446 TRINIDAD. 



remarkable for the large size of the tadpole, which is several inches 

 long, and has some resemblance to the cascaradura ; its body 

 which is smooth and not scaly exhibiting oblique bands exactly 

 like those of that fish. It still retains the tail sometime after the 

 four limbs have grown, which gives it the grotesque appearance of 

 a fish provided with a toad's feet ; hence the erroneous impression, 

 among the vulgar, that the cascaradura is ultimately metamorphosed 

 into a toad. There exist in the colony many tree-frogs, or hylse- 

 forms ; besides the one already mentioned, I know a very small 

 one of a brown colour above, and gray beneath ; another, of nearly 

 the same colour, but much larger, and found in cacao plantations, 

 generally sticking on the inferior surface of some leaf (Hyla 

 Xerophylla .?) ; a third, of a milky colour (Hyla Lacteaf). 



The pipa is a large batrachian, very remarkable on account of 

 its singular form, but more, and chiefly so from its mode of gene- 

 ration. The female carries on its back the eggs or semina which 

 the male has placed there ; a sort of inflammation is the conse- 

 quence of such application, and each egg becomes as imprisoned 

 in a cell, which gradually increases in size, so as to accommodate 

 the growth of the semen. When hatched, the young escape 

 from the cells, the back of the mother remaining for some time 

 as if honey- combed. 



A pretty little lizard, about four inches long, which we have 

 not been able to determine, is very common in town, along fence- 

 walls, in the crevices of which it dwells. It is easily distinguish- 

 able by its large lustrous eyes, and a bright white streak extending 

 from the point of the muzzle to the extremity of the tail ; also by 

 the lighter colour of the neck and head, as compared with the 

 body. 



I have also seen a curious little animal resembling an amphis- 

 baena, but having four limbs ; it is probably a ceps. 





