DISCOGLOSSUS. 137 



not begin to pair, so far as I conld observe, until the 

 beginning of June. The first eggs, about 400 in 

 number, I found on the bottom of the tank oq the 

 morning of June 7th, the embryos emerging on the 

 10th ; whilst on the 14th, or exactly a week later, the 

 young had lost their external gills and entered the 

 tadpole stage, measuring 11 mm. total length, buds 

 of the hind limbs being discernible on the 17th. 

 On the 23rd the largest specimens measured 21 mm., 

 and on the 3rd July some had reached their full 

 length, viz. 25 to 30 mm. On the 5th July some 

 had put on the striped livery. The fore limi)s first 

 appeared on the 6th, and the metamorphosis was 

 completed by the 8th, when the first specimeus left 

 the water with a reduced caudal appendage, and 

 measuring 8 to 10 mm. from snout to vent, the last 

 metamorphosing as late as August 6th. Striped speci- 

 mens were in the proportion of one to four spotted or 

 immaculate. 



On the morning of June 14th the tank again con- 

 tained eggs, 895 in number, which, from their con- 

 dition, must have been deposited in the night of the 

 12th — 13th (I was absent on Sunday, 13th), and the 

 embryos of which were liberated in the afternoon of 

 the 14th, thus less than forty-eight hours after the 

 deposition of the eggs — a process of development 

 more rapid than has been observed in any other 

 species of Batrachians. The young from this brood 

 began to leave the water on July 20th, whilst others 

 retained the larval condition until October 5th. None 

 were of the striped form. A third lot of 936 eggs 

 were deposited during the night of July 6th — 7th; 

 they hatched in the night of 8th — 9th, and the young 

 completed their metamorphosis between August 16th 

 and October, a few being still in the tadpole condi- 

 tion whilst these lines are passing through the press. 

 About two-thirds of them belonged to the striped 

 form. In all these cases I was struck by the ex- 

 tremely small proportion of eggs that did not develop. 



