212 ARCHIVOS DO MUSEU NACIONAL — VOL, XXIV 
the same time its teeth patches; and if the finger is placed within reach it 
will attempt to bite it. Its movements in water are brusque and rapid, The 
reproduction of Ceratophrys dorsata has for very long been the objective of 
my investigation, without however satisfactory results, since I chose The- 
rezopolis as my field of study. During last year I only succeeded in verifying 
that the mating takes place during the first heavy rains in the month of Oc- 
tober. It seems that there is a second laying of eggs during December, but 
cannot be put down as definite. When the rains come they are to be heard 
and it is then easy to meet with the males on the borders of swamps, im- 
movable and emitting their hoarse lament like call, something like the call 
of a Cicuda cut short, grave and melancholy. Although I might have seen 
an actual mating quite analogous to that of any other frog, I never suc- 
ceeded in seeing the laying of eggs. Thus I am unable, for the present, to Say 
anything relative to the first tadpole stages, neither as to the number or form 
of each laying. 
The tadpoles found at the stage of fig. I to 3, were in a pool of rainwater 
near the roadway and relatively clean. There were also tad poles of Lepto- 
dactylus ocellatus, on which the “intanhas” feed, and later Hyla faber, Phyl- 
lomedusa bicolor and Phyllomedusa hepichondrialis also deposited eggs 
there. Helped by my sons I succeeded in catching all the “intanha” tadpoles 
contained in the pool of some 10 square metres: they were as previously 
stated 18 in all, of which I succeeded in rearing only four to the last stage. 
The dominating paludecoloid appearance of these tadpoles, gives the impres- 
sion ofan evident ranoid state in fig. 6 where even an interdigital mem- 
brane is notably evidenced between the Joints. Itis that this membrane 
retracts later becoming much reduced. 
This is all that I was enabled to gather during a seris of unfruitful pros- 
-pectings in the space of six years. 
STOMBUS BOIEI (Wied) . 
The capture of Phyllomedusa tadpoles induced me to observe the tad- 
pole of another frog, which at first sight, I putaside as being of a Bufo 
which is common in the neighbourhood and mating about the same time 
(middle of november). Later another fact called my attention to it: Amon- 
gst the many tadpoles of Phyllomedusa appeared a Ha of dark colour 
" whose abdomen showed purple streaks like the smaller tadpoles which 1 
had put down as Bufo. I assembled several tadpoles of this curious form in 
separate on a Sunday and on my return from Rio for the next weck end, 
found amongst the tadpoles in varying stages of evolution, one in a more 
advanced stage which permitted its identification as Stombus boiei (Wied). 
