No. 405.] DEVELOPMENT AMONG ANURA. 693 
trunks of trees. After some discussion it has been decided that 
the spawn is that of Polypedates maculatus. A very similar 
account is given of the blue spawn of Rana temporalis, also 
found in Ceylon. The two descriptions agree so closely that 
one is led to suspect that the two cases may be one and the 
same. 
The tadpoles of a Brazilian frog, Hyla (Ololygen) abbreviata, 
have been found in cracks of rocks. The abdomen of the 
tadpole is flat and serves as a sucker, so that if the perpen- 
dicular rock is slightly moist, the tadpole can move rapidly 
over it without legs. The tail is round, with a fin only at the 
end; on the ventral side the fin is anteriorly converted into a 
sole, which probably aids the tadpole in adhering to the rock. 
The mouth is large and the lips are unusually developed. It 
is said that the frogs, for a time after metamorphosis, are the 
color of the rocks. Nothing is recorded as to where the eggs 
are laid, or how they develop. 
The breeding habits of Pipa americana, commonly known 
as the “Surinam toad," have been a subject of observation, 
still more of discussion, from time to time for more than a 
century. It has been found in British as well as in Dutch 
Guiana. The frogs are said to be essentially aquatic, and 
rarely to leave the water. The eggs are laid in the dry sea- 
son, when the temperature is exceedingly high. The earlier 
accounts of spawning are probably based on the observations 
made by Fermin in Surinam, and published in 1765. He states 
that the eggs are laid on the sand and are placed by the male 
on the back of the female; a few minutes after fertilization 
the female returns with them to the water and swims off. The 
Spawning has recently been described in a different way, as 
: Observed on one occasion in the Zoólogical Gardens of London. 
The animals remained in the water, the oviduct was protruded 
into a bladder-like pouch, turned up over the back; the male 
clasped the female, and pushed the eggs out of the bladder, 
leaving them evenly distributed over the back of the female. 
It is supposed that the eggs are fertilized in the ovipositor. 
: 1A few embryos of Pipa have been in the possession of the Warren Anatom- 
ical Museum of the Harvard Medical School. _ 
