124 
ANIMAL CURIOSITIES 
prominences are present in front of the eyes 
and on the upper lip. 
It is, however, the spawning habits of this 
toad that render it so noteworthy, for the 
female carries her eggs upon her back, each 
one being embedded in a small pit formed in 
her skin, which becomes very soft during the 
breeding season. In this situation the eggs 
remain until the young hatch out, a hundred 
or more being carried in this manner. 
How the eggs reached their curious resting- 
place was for long a mystery, but the problem 
was eventually solved by observations made 
of a pair of these toads that laid some eggs 
at the London Zoological Gardens in the year 
1896. It was then revealed that the female 
protruded her bladder-like oviduct for a con¬ 
siderable distance beyond her body, curling 
it upwards and over the lower part of her 
back. The male then came to the assistance 
of his mate and, pressing upon the oviduct, 
forced the eggs out one by one, distributed 
them evenly over her back, and buried them 
in her soft skin. After the eggs were embedded 
a thin and horn-like lid gradually formed over 
the cavities, and within this retreat the young 
ones hatch out and undergo the whole of 
their transformation, coming forth after a 
period of eighty-two days as fully developed 
