CONCERNING TADPOLES 



199 



Some frogs take up the burden of their young only after 

 they have assumed the tadpole stage — as, for example, in 

 certain S. American and African species. But of their 

 life-history little is known. A small frog found in the 

 Seychelles {Arthroleftis Seychellensis) undertakes a similar 

 guardianship. This fact was discovered by the German 

 naturalist Brauer, who found during August, at about 

 1,500 feet above the sea-level, an adult of the species 



DARWIN S FROG. 



bearing nine tadpoles on its back, to which they adhered 

 by a sucker on the belly. In such cases it is believed 

 that the eggs are laid in some shallow pool, and that later, 

 one or other of the parents returns to take up the young. 

 Unhappily nothing else is known of their history. 



Two further remarkable cases yet remain to be con- 

 sidered. The first of these is that of the West African 

 Short-handed Tree-frog {Hylambates brevicefs), wherein the 



