152 ANURA CHAP. 



Bartlett ^ has described the spawning of specimens in the 

 Zoological Gardens in London. 



" About the 28th of April 1896 the males became very lively, 

 and were constantly heard uttering their most remarkable 

 metallic, ticking call-notes. On examination we then observed 

 two of the males clasping tightly round the lower part of the 

 bodies of the females, the hind parts of the males extending 

 beyond those of the females. On the following morning the keeper 

 arrived in time to witness the mode in which the eggs were 

 deposited. The oviduct of the female protruded from her body 

 more than an inch in length, and the bladder-like protrusion 

 being retroverted, passed under the belly of the male on to 

 her own back. The male appeared to press tightly upon this 

 protruded bag and to squeeze it from side to side, apparently 

 pressing the eggs forward one by one on to the back of the female. 

 By this movement the eggs were spread with nearly uniform 

 smoothness over the whole surface of the back of the female 

 to which they became firmly adherent. On the operation 

 being completed, the males left their places on' the females, and 

 the enlarged and projected oviduct gradually disappeared from 

 one of the females. I;i the other specimen, the oviduct appears 

 not to have discharged the whole of the eges." 



Boulenger, who examined this second specimen, which died, 

 confirmed this egg-bound condition. He remarks further : " The 

 ovipositor formed by the cloaca (not by the prolapsed uterus), 

 was still protruding and much inflamed. It may be deduced 

 from the observation made by the keeper, that fecundation must 

 take place before the extrusion of the eggs, and it is probable 

 that the ovipositor serves in the first instance to collect the 

 spermatozoa which would penetrate into the oviducts, the 

 eggs being laid in the impregnated condition, as in tailed 

 Batracliians." 



Sub-Order 2. Phaneroglossa— Fam. 1. Discoglossidae.— 

 The tongue has the shape of a round disc, adherent by nearly 

 the whole of its base, and it cannot be protruded. The vertebrae 

 are opisthocoelous, and in the aquatic genera are of the most 

 exaggerated epichordal type ; the diapophyses of the second to 

 the fourth vertebrae carry short, free ribs, and those of the sacral 

 vertebra are dilated. The metasternum behind is forked. The 



' F.Z.S. 1896, p. 595. 



