124 Notes on the Natural History of the Natterjack. 



also to occupy a considerable length, of time in the per- 

 formance. From some circumstances also which attend the 

 proceeding there is reason to believe that it is performed in a 

 different manner from that by which this function is executed 

 in the common frog ; and if so, it seems to follow that the 

 fertilization is accomplished while the ova are yet in the body 

 of the parent. Thus in one instance a couple of females with- 

 out a male were in occupation of a pool in the rock, in which 

 fortunately for them some roots of a flag* remained from a former 

 growth, and which, although adhering to the bottom, remained 

 otherwise exposed. To these the long strings of spawn were 

 attached. The arrangement of the grains being alternate in two 

 rows enclosed within a lengthened case or band of mucus ; and 

 as these strings were in some parts much entangled together, I 

 was at some pains to disentangle and measure them. I judged 

 one of these strings to measure nearly, if not quite one hundred 

 feet, and the other was but little less ; and assuredly our wonder 

 must be excited in contemplating so great a length, excluded 

 from the body of so small an animal. This indeed can only be 

 explained by the consideration that a great increase of size is 

 caused by the absorption of fluid as the string of» mucus is 

 dragged from the parent ; and that the expression dragged is 

 not inappropriate is again rendered probable by the fact that 

 in the first place no male was found in or near the pool, 

 although in one of them that was killed the full amount of 

 spawn had not been excluded. And again, a portion of the 

 chain or string was twisted round a stalk of the dead plant, 

 and it had even been passed through a narrow opening 

 between two portions of the stalk, through which the parent must 

 have witli difficulty drawn itself ; but through which it appeared 

 impossible that the male when attached to the female could 

 also have passed. I have found a few sprigs of furze that had 

 accidentally fallen into a pool, which had been used for the 

 same purpose of forming a fixed point, and by which the string 

 might have been drawn from the body of the female. In one 

 instance, where there were only two females of this species, the 

 separate strings of spawn measured each about twenty feet; and 

 on opening one of them which had been killed there were found 

 about half a dozen black grains still remaining in the ovary, 

 together with a la rge quantity of minute grains of a similar 

 kind but pale white, as if they constituted a new formation 

 of spawn. 



The grains of ripe spawn, when first shed, appear of a 

 deep black colour, but closer observation discovers within 

 each of then a pale oicatricula; the size of the grain being 

 nearly that of a radish seed. But before I proceed to describe 

 the order of their development, I would remark that, on one 



