98 



THE ANIMALS AND MAN 



If they have been recently laid, the enclosing jelly mass will 

 be clean and clear, but it soon becomes partly covered with 

 fine mud, when the eggs are not so easily seen. Bring some 

 egg-masses to the schoolroom and keep them in water in a 

 light warm place but not in the direct sunlight. 



Examine the eggs several times a day, as hatching occurs 

 in two or three days after they are laid. The developing 



embryo can be 

 clearly seen through 

 the transparent jel- 

 ly. Watch for 

 their first move- 

 ments and note 

 their change in 

 form. Finally they 

 wriggle out from 

 the jelly mass and 

 swim freely in the 

 water, or attach 

 themselves, by 

 means of a little 

 V-shaped sucker on the head, to some solid object. They 

 are not like adult frogs or toads at all, but are the famil- 

 iar little fish-like tadpoles (fig. 42). 



The tadpoles. — To rear tadpoles successfully in the school- 

 room requires some pains. First, a proper little artificial 

 pond must be made. Professor Gage, of Cornell University, 

 who has sucessfuUy reared many broods, gives the following 

 directions for caring for them: 



"To feed the tadpoles it is necessary to imitate nature as 

 closely as possible. To do this a visit to the pond where 

 the eggs were found will give the clue. Many plants are 

 present, and the bottom will be seen to slope gradually 

 from the shore. The food of the tadpole is the minute 

 plant-life on the stones, the surface of the mud, or on the 



I ic. 41. Garden toad. 



