168 



PIPA. 



again obscurely subdivided almost in a similar 

 manner: the hind feet are five-toed, and very 

 widely webbed ; the web reaching to the very tips 

 of the toes. The male Pipa is larger than the 

 female, measuring sometimes not less than seven 

 inches from the nose to the end of the body : the 

 nose in both sexes is of a somewhat truncated 

 form, like that of a mole, or hog, and the eyes 

 extremely small : from each eye, in the female, 

 run two rows of granules or glandular points to 

 the middle of the back : the whole body is also 

 covered with similar points or glandules, but 

 smaller than the former : in the male a single row 

 of granules proceeds from ^ each eye down the 

 back, instead of a double row, as in the female : 

 these points or granules are also larger than in the 

 female, and gradually decrease in size as they ap- 

 proach the lower part of the back : the skin round 

 the neck, in both sexes, forms a kind of loose or 

 wrinkled collar: the abdomen of tlie male is of a 

 browner tinge than that of the female, and is some- 

 times obscurely spotted with yellow ; but the gene- 

 ral colour, both of the male and female Pipa, is a 

 dark or blackish brown. The Pipa seems to have 

 been first made known to European naturalists 

 about the latter end of the seventeenth century, 

 and to have been first described by Ruysch. It 

 was afterwards described and figured by Madam 

 Merian ; but with much greater accuracy by the 

 editor of Seba's Museum, where it is represented 

 in its different states. 



It was for a long time supposed that the ova of 



