294 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



although the tail fins were well developed and there was as 

 yet no trace of limbs. 



I kept this frog in a box with wet earth and a puddle of 

 water, and two days later half the taflpoles had left his back 

 and were swimming strongly in the muddy water. They were 

 attached to the back of their parent only by their sucking 

 disks, and the object of the strange association seemed only 

 temporary and not intended to last until the tadpoles iDccame 

 adult. They would probably drop off and swim away one 

 by one when their father entered some forest pool. This 

 si)ecies of frog was very active and capable of remarkably 

 long jumps. 



As I shall mention later, the sharp eyes of my Indian hunter 

 spicfl a most remarkable frog in the jungle one day, which I 

 brought home in my pocket. Its scheme of protective form 

 and color was perfect — the hue of dried leaves and withered 

 mosses, with deeply serrated sides and a high irregular ridge 

 over each eye. I placed it among some dried leaves and 

 tried to focus on it with my GraHcx, but could not find it. 

 Then I stooped down and although the frog had not moved 

 and I knew the square yard within which it was resting, it 

 took me a full minute before I located it, and optically disen- 

 tangled it from its surroundings. I have never seen such a 

 case of complete dissolution and disajjpearance. When I 

 alarmed it, the frog closed its eyes — thus obliterating the 

 dark spots of its irides, and then little by little opened them 

 again. 



Every evening at half past live o'clock we would troop down 

 to the stream and swim and paddle about on the sand bars 

 in the half day — half moonlight. The water was cool and 

 refreshing and the temperature of the air invigorating at this 

 hour, and to lie on one's back and look up at the lofty moras 

 and other trees stretching their branches fifty 3rards or more 

 overhead was a sensation never to be forgotten. 



