316 BATllACHIANS. 



other species of the genus, with the exception of the Bull-Frog of 

 North America. Rana opisthodon atTords an instance of a Batrachian^ 

 which dispenses with the usual larval or tadpole stage, " the meta- 

 morphoses being hurried through within the egg." On this subject 

 I made the following notes. Whilst descending from one of the 

 peaks of Faro Island, I stopped at a stream some 400 feet above the 

 sea, where my native boys collected from the moist crevices of the 

 rocks close to the water a number of transparent gelatinous balls 

 rather smaller than a marble.'-^ Each of these balls contained a 

 young frog about 4 lines in length, apparently fully developed, with 

 very long hind legs and short fore legs, no tail, and bearing on the 

 sides of the body small tufts of what seemed to be branchise. On 

 my rupturing the ball or egg in which the little animal v/as doubled 

 up, the tiny frog took a marvellous leap into its existence and dis- 

 appeared before I could catch it. When I reached the ship an hour 

 after, I found that some of the eggs which had been carried in a tin 

 had been ruptured on the way by the jolting, and the liberated frogs 

 were leaping about with great activity. On placing some of them 

 in an open bottle 8 inches high, I had to put the cover on as they 

 kept leaping out. Mr. Boulenger remarking on this observation 

 says, that there are no gills, but that on each side of the abdomen 

 there are regular transverse folds (with an arrangement like that of 

 the gill-openings of Plagiostomous Fishes), the function of whicii 

 probably is that of breathing-organs. The tip of the snout is, he 

 .says, furnished with a small conical protuberance, projecting slightly 

 through the delicate envelope of the egg, and evidently used to per- 

 forate that covering. In the instance also of Coritufer solomonis, 

 another new species included in my collection, Mr. Boulenger re- 

 marks that there is every reason to believe that the young undergo 

 the metamorphoses within the egg. 



With regard to the interesting species, Ceratobatrachus guev.theriy 

 which forms the type of a new family, Ceratobairachidce, the same 

 writer observes that it is rcmaikable for the numerous appendages 

 and symmetrical folds which orjiate its skin. It is, in fact, "all 

 points and angles," and may be truly termed a horned frog. There 

 is great variation both in the coloration and in the integuments. 

 " Out of the twenty s[)eciraens before me," thus Mr. Boulenger 

 writes, " no two are perfectly alike." The development is presumed 



^ Hylodes'martiniccnsis affords another instance. Men. Berl. Ac, 187G, p. 714. 

 " According to Mr. Boulenger, they iiieasurc from G to 10 mm. in diameter. 



