THE SURINAM TOAD 



365 



encysted, and retained in a cell of its own 1 . 

 There they remain until they are fully incubated, 

 the tadpole stage is passed, and a tiny, but per- 

 fect Toad emerges from the skin of Us mother's 

 back ! 



The number of young usually produced at one 

 hatching is from sixty to seventy, and the period 

 of incubation is from seventy-five to eighty-five 

 days. At the close of this process, the thickened 

 layer of skin on the back of the female loses its 

 vitality, and is shed very much as a snake sheds 



a dead epidermis. Although the front feet of 

 the Surinam Toad arc small and webless, the 

 hind feet are of great size, fully webbed, and so 

 much drawn in at the ends of the toes that in 

 swimming the foot is saucer-shaped. 



There are other frogs which display remark- 

 able intelligence in the production of their young, 

 their methods going far beyond what one would 

 expect in creatures as low in the vertebrate scale 

 as the amphibians. As a whole, the members of 

 this Order offer a wide field for the specialist. 



1 For a full description of the process, see the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1896, 

 n. 595. 



