1932 The Zoologist— December, 1869. 



ing with frogs and toads busily engaged in spawning, and was 

 astonished to notice a great nurabcT of them promiscuously in copula. 

 In every instance but one tlia came ui der my notice the union was 

 between the male frog and the female toad, but in that one instance it 

 was vice versd." (Zool. 4097.) 



It is also by no means a rare occurrence to find two males thus 

 attached to each other ; and Mr. Bell mentions an instance of two 

 frogs attaching themselves to a pike : after quoting the famous passage 

 from Isaac Walton about the Bishop in Bohemia and the Bishop of 

 Thurgo, Mr. Bell proceeds thus : — " I have often heard my father relate 

 an instance of a similar fact, though with somewhat more adherence to 

 the simple truth of the case. As he was walking in the spring on the 

 banks of a large piece of water at Wimpole, the seat of Lord Uard- 

 wicke, he observed a large pike swimming in a verj' sluggish manner 

 near the surface of the water, having two dark-coloured patches on the 

 side which he thought must be occasioned by disease : a few days 

 afterwards he saw the same pike floating dead upon the surface of the 

 water, aud, having drawn it to land by means of a stick, he found that 

 the dark-coloured masses which he had observed on the former occa- 

 sion were two living frogs still attached to the fish, and that so firmly, 

 that it required some force to push them off with a stick." — British 

 Reptilex, 2nd edition, p. OU. 



Notwithstanding all that has been written with more or less accuracy 

 of the obstetric talents of the male frog, I believe that the real object 

 is to disburthen himself of the so-called milt with which he is loaded, 

 and this being cast loose in the water finds its proper destination, 

 exactly as is the case in the desmogeuous fishes : with the female, on 

 the contrary, the spawn seems to be retained until contact witli the 

 male informs her that it will be properly fecundated ; for no sooner 

 has the male frog taken up his position as above described, than the 

 female commences the duty of ovi position. The eggs consist of a 

 small, spherical and almost black centre or yelk, and a transparent 

 mucilaginous surrounding which corresponds with the albumen or 

 white of a bird's egg, but which has no perceptible envelope either 

 coriaceous or calcareous : each of these eggs receives the spermatic 

 fluid which is continually shed by the male. I cannot find any 

 thread connecting the eggs together as in the natterjack and load, 

 but they nevertheless adhere in masses which are inseparable except 

 by the application of considerable force. The spawn is deposited at 

 the bottom of the water, and the albumen of each individual egg 



