Notes on the Breeding Habit and 

 Development of Racophorus 

 Schlegelii, Günther. 



By S. Ik ed a. 



Zoological Institute, Imp. Univ., Tokyo. 



The breeding habit of one of our tree-frogs, Racophorus Schlegelii, 

 Günth., present some remarkable features not known, so far as I am 

 aware, in any other amphibia, and no apology, I believe, is needed for 

 the publication of the following notes. 



It is now thriteen years ago that my attention was first called to 

 the peculiar breeding habit of this tree-frog. When I was travelling 

 in 1884 through the Aizu district in the province of Iwashiro, I came 

 one day across a pair of the tree-frogs depositing eggs in soft muddy 

 ground covered with grass The egg-mass was of a very peculiar ap- 

 pearance—it was a frothy mass, about 6 or 7 cm. in diameter, full of air- 

 bubbles, looking exactly like well-beaten white of hen's egg. Pale 

 yellowish eggs of the frog were scattered throughout the mass. 



I have since been able to find in Tokyo the frothy egg-masses of 

 the same species imbedded in wet and muddy banks of paddy-fields, 

 ponds, etc. and to continue my observations on the breeding habit from 

 year to year. Some of the results I have already published in the Tokyo 

 Zoological Magazine in Japanese. It has, however, been only within the 

 season just past that I have had the joy of ascertaining exactly how the 

 frothy mass is produced. What is stated in the sequel have been com- 

 piled mostly from these observations made in Tokyo. 



