150 



THE SURINAM TOAD. 



The tongue plays an important part in separating the frogs and toads into groups ; and 

 in the lirst group the tongue is altogether absent, these creatures being, in consequence, called 

 Aglossa, or tongueless Batrachians. 



The first of these creatures, the Xenopus of Western and Southern Africa {DacfyletJira 

 Icevis), is remarkable for possessing nails on its feet, the first three toes being tipped with a 

 sharply-pointed claw or nail. The family is very small, comprising only one genus, and, as 

 tar as is known, two species. The color of the Xenopus is ashy-brown, veined with blackish- 

 brown. It is rather a large species. 



The celebrated Surinam Toad has long attracted attention, not for its beauty, as it is 

 one of the most unprepossessing of beings, but for the extraordinary way in which the devel- 

 opment of the young is conducted. 



When the eggs are laid, the male takes them in his broad paws, and contrives to place 

 them on the back of his mate, where they adhere by means of a certain glutinous secretion, 



;^ ''^'^^■^ ^^ 



^~ u-:a 7- so. 



SURINAM TOAD.—Pipa americana. 



and by degrees become embedded in a series of curious cells formed for them in the skin. 

 When the process is completed, the cells are closed by a kind of membrane, and the back of 

 the female Toad bears a strong resemblance to a piece of dark honey-comb, when the cells are 

 filled and closed. Here the eggs are hatched ; and in these strange receptacles the young pass 

 througi) their first stages of life, not emerging until they have attained their limbs, arid can 

 move about on the ground. 



The skin of this, as well as of other Batrachians, is separated from the muscles of the 

 back, and allows i-oom for the formation of the cells, being nearly half an inch thick. The 

 full -sized cells are much deeper than long, and each would about hold a common horse-bean, 

 thrust into it endways. The mouths of the cells assume an irregularly hexagonal form, prob- 

 ably because their original shape would be cylindrical, were they not sqixeezed against each 

 other. 



