64 INTRODUCTION. 



IX. Pairinpt and Oviposition. 



It is often stated in books tliat, in temperate 

 climates at least, tailless Batrachians have a fixed 

 annual period of reproduction, taking place in the end 

 of winter or in spring. This statement, based on a 

 generalisation of the familiar phenomenon presented 

 by our two common Northern species, Bana tempo- 

 rnr'ia and Bufo vulgavi><, is erroneous, individuals of 

 some species— tliose of the family Discoglossidx, for 

 instance — breeding several times a year, at distant 

 intervals ; and between these two extreme types we 

 have almost every possible gradation. 



In a first category, to which Bafo vulgaris, Bana 

 femporaria, and Bana arcalis belong, the pairing 

 season is of short duration, and although, with us, 

 dependent on atmospheric conditions and regulated 

 by the rise of the thermometer rather than by the 

 calendar, coincides almost to a day for all the in- 

 dividuals under equal climatic conditions. The males 

 are endowed with genesic fury to the extent of letting 

 themselves be mutilated or even immersed in spirit 

 without letting go their mate, to which they cling 

 tightly with their powerful fore limbs, awaiting the 

 expulsion of tlie ova to discharge on- them their 

 seminal fluid. In their blind frenzy they will clasp 

 individuals of other kinds, even fishes, putrefied 

 corpses of females that have succumbed to their 

 embrace, or all sorts of floating objects. Common 

 toads may be fished by holding out to them a thick 

 stick, to which they cling with their arms. As males 

 of that species are always more numerous than 

 females, great fights ensue, in which the latter 

 sometimes perish under the pressure of several of 

 their would-be possessors. 



