680 



THE A M ERIC A X XA T URA L I ST 



[Vol. XLI 



impulse of the female had stopped so that she was carried to the 

 male by her inertia, he would make no response until she began 

 again to swim. Provided that the female is motionless a male may 

 remain for several minutes almost touching her, even in the water, 

 without apparently being aware of her presence. I saw the same 

 thing several times in males and females acciflentally thrown 

 together during the fighting. In some cases the female, in respond- 

 ing to a call, would swim right by a male approaching from the 

 side, so that neither seemed to recognize the other. 



The females are able to locate the exact spot from which a call 

 is issued. In most cases, at the first or second call, they turned 

 so as to face in the general direction from which it came, the efl'ect 

 being most noticeable with eight or nine females on the sand to- 

 gether. Before the call they faced in all directions, — after the 

 call in one, the most sensitive animals moving two or three feet 

 toward the call at once. The efl'ect was much like that of bringing 

 a strong magnet near a lot of small compass needles. At the next, 

 or some succeeding call, a start would be made, the loads sw iiiiining 

 vigorously for a few seconds, then floating forward on rlie surface 

 of the water until their motion was spent. OftcMi wIk-ii a female 



male, it. uu^v u,.,ild 1, it "the ..antlinu <.ii the inner side of the 

 breakwater jnst nn.lerneath where th.- niah- was sitting. I feel 

 sin-e, thongh, that this was not heeanse it saw tho male. In one 

 case the calling male faced so that he could not see the approach 

 of the female just beneath him. An inch or two at one side was a 

 mated couple. The female, on reaching the spot where the male 

 was, wonld be attracted bv the motions of the couple and swim 

 towards th(Mn. o.ily to leave them innne.hately and swim aer.>ss the 



sion. As already .tated. when a tlmah' had started tcAvards a 

 callino- male, >he wonld j>ay no attention to any males coming 

 towards hei- from the side. 'i'lii> wa- >o marked that the response 



hard to be sure - was that the response of a toad, either male or 

 kind than by itself. The first five or six females were mated 



