4i6 DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



only in the pairing time. The alliaceous toad (rana 

 alliaced), which smells of garlick ; its tadpoles are 

 very large, and are eaten as fish in some countries. 

 The bufo obstetricans, common in the rocky soil 

 near Paris, helps the female to exclude its ova ; 

 collects them round its legs, after having covered 

 them with gluten, and carries them about until 

 the time of their birth draws near, when it 

 seeks for a pond or ditch of stagnant water ; 

 the young then come forth and swim instanta- 

 neously. Amongst the foreign species are : the 

 b. agua, its body is from 8 to 10 inches long, 

 and covered with warts as large as beans ; the 

 horned frog (b. cornutus), which has a kind of 

 callous process, resembling a horn, on each eye- 

 lid; and the crested toad (b. margaritifera). We 

 know but one species of the genus pipa, or toad 

 of Surinam ; it inhabits the dark and humid parts 

 of houses ; it has a flattened body, and its way of 

 reproduction is so different from that of the 

 whole tribe of frogs, that it ought to be men- 

 tioned here. When the spawn is milted, the 

 male places it on the back of the female, which 

 goes instantly to the water ; there its skin swells^ 

 and a great number of cellular tubercles are 

 formed in it; the young are hatched and undergo 

 their metamorphosis in these cells, in which 

 they remain. When their legs are well formed, 



