SOME STRANGE NURSING HABITS 345 
and tadpoles are protected from enemies; while another 
kind lays its eggs in a slimy mass attached to withered 
banana-leaves, the young remaining in this nest until they 
have passed through the tadpole stage. Ina third species, 
on the other hand, the larval stages are hurried through 
before hatching, the female carrying a load of eggs on 
her back, where they remain until developed into perfect 
frogs. Some years ago a female of this species was 
exhibited alive at a meeting of the Zoological Society thus 
loaded. 
It will be observed that in all the foregoing instances 
the female parent takes charge of the eggs, either on or 
in her own body, or in a specially prepared nest, as soon 
as they are laid; but there are two genera of South 
American frogs in which it appears that, while the eggs 
are left to themselves, the tadpoles are carried about by 
their mother. The members of the one genus (Dendrobates) 
are tree-frogs from Surinam and Brazil, while the other 
species is from Venezuela, and belongs to the genus 
Phyllobates. Here the tadpoles, which may be from a 
dozen to eighteen in number, affix themselves to the body 
of their mother by their sucking mouths, and are thus 
carried about. Inthe case of one species of the genus 
first named, it appears that this mode of locomotion is 
only resorted to when the water is drying up and the 
mother desires to convey her offspring to other pools; but 
in the other forms the attachment seems to be more 
enduring. 
The female of Darwin's frog (Rhinoderma darwint), from 
Chili, has, however, “gone one better” than all her allies, 
for not only does she get her eggs and young safely carried 
about until they are fit to take care of themselves, but she 
has actually shifted the onerous task of taking care of 
