BREEDING HABITS OF FROGS AND TOADS 365 
when the young frogs are ready to make their appearance 
in the world. 
Perhaps, however, the most peculiar kind of “ nursery” 
is the one found in Darwin’s frog (Rhinoderma darwint). 
In this extraordinary creature the males are provided in 
the breeding season with an enormous pouch on the throat, 
in which the large eggs (generally about ten in number) 
are hatched and the tadpoles protected until they become 
true frogs. The tadpoles never have external gills, and 
probably not internal ones either, so that they are much 
more advanced at birth than is the case with their brethren 
of ordinary species. 
Another instance of abbreviated or accelerated develop- 
ment is furnished by Goeldi’s tree-frog (Hyla goeldi) of 
Brazil. Here the score or so of eggs are carried on the 
back of the female, in which the skin of the margins is 
raised so as to form a kind of saucer. According to one 
authority, the newly hatched young are in the form of 
perfect frogs, which prefer not to stay in water. Another 
method of carrying the eggs is displayed by a Cingalese 
frog (Rhacophorus reticulatus), in which they adhere to the 
abdomen of the female. 
Some frogs, again, such as Sea hammondi of North 
America, are in the habit of depositing their spawn in 
rain-pools liable to rapid desiccation. And in these cases 
the tadpoles acquire limbs at an unusually early age, in 
order to be enabled to seek a fresh pool when their own 
shows signs of giving out. The tadpoles of an Idaho 
frog (Spea bombifrons) show a singular dislike to water, 
even while in the swimming stage of existence; they 
breathe air, and live on the bare ground in smooth spaces 
which they clear for themselves. Three other American 
species (two of which belong to the genus Dendrodaites, 
