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Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa. 
with these the animal makes rapid scooping movements in the mud and 
makes quick darts at, and swallows, any food which it causes to be 
suspended in the water in this way. Animals swimming at the surface 
are pounced upon and swallowed with wonderful rapidity. If the morsel 
of food is too large to be swallowed the fore-limbs are again brought into 
use ; portions of the captured prey is made to project from the mouth, 
and the Plathander makes vicious jabs at it with first one hand then with 
the other until it is reduced to a suitable size. 
External Ai^pcarance. — The body is smoothly oblong in cross-section 
and is largest posteriorly — it gradually tapers towards the anterior end ; the 
head is flattened. The cloaca is terminal posteriorly and, in the female, is 
provided with three conspicuous folds of skin. There are no distinctly 
coloured tympanic membranes. The eyes are round, protruding organs ; 
the mouth has not such a wide gape as in the frog and there is no tongue. 
The tentacles, situated just below the eyes, are very small, and are only 
distinctly noticeable when the animal is under water. The fore-limbs are 
small and, as already mentioned, are each provided with four digits. The 
hind-limbs are very strongly developed and each possesses five digits, the 
first three of which end in strong, black claws, which have caused the 
animal to be called the " Clawed Toad." Only the digits of the hind- 
limbs are w^ebbed. 
The skin is richly supplied w^ith slime glands, and this slime has a 
strong musky smell, but is apparently not poisonous, since ducks are very 
fond of a Plathander meal. Besides these slime glands there are other 
" glands '' of unknown function which have a very definite arrangement ; 
they present the appearance of narrow pits about one-eighth of an inch 
long, and are situated in lines which are mostly coincident with the 
partitions between the subcutaneous lymph spaces. 
The colour is yellowish white on the ventral surface, while the dorsal 
surface is brownish with darker, more or less circular patches. The 
colour varies considerably according to the intensity of light to which the 
animal is exposed, and in bright light the colour is very light. A greenish- 
blue colour can also be assumed, and I have found individuals of this 
colour in water with a large amount of algae, and also in a tank painted 
dark green on its inside. 
The subcutaneous lymph spaces have a distribution somew^hat differing 
from that of the frog ; thus there is no saccus lateralis, the s. craniodorsalis 
and the s. abdominalis meeting laterally ; also there is no septum between 
the saccus thoracicus and the s. abdominalis. Apart from those already 
mentioned there are, as in the frog, a saccus submaxillaris, s. brachio- 
radialis, s. femoralis, s. cruralis, s. supra femoralis, and s. intrafemoralis. 
The s. femoralis and s. supra-femoralis are only separated along the 
posterior edge of the leg. 
