FROGS AND TOADS 
125 
toads, and making their way into the unknown 
world by pushing off the lids of their tem¬ 
porary domiciles. The skin of the mother’s 
back then gradually dries up and is shed or 
rubbed off, the cells closing up and only leaving 
a small prominence to indicate where they 
previously existed. 
Other tongueless batrachians are the smooth- 
clawed or spur-toed frogs, so called because 
the three inner toes of their hind feet are 
furnished with sharp, horny and spur-like 
nails. Their skin is quite smooth, and along 
either side of the body is present a row of 
small bright-coloured and tubular sensory 
canals which look as if the creature’s skin 
had been sewn up with minute perpendicular 
stitches. 
The species is entirely aquatic, while the 
tadpoles, which are born in a somewhat 
advanced state and have no external gills, 
are curious in the fact that they possess a 
pair of long filaments or barbel-like tentacles 
that arise on either side of the mouth. These 
first make their appearance a few days after 
the tadpoles hatch out, and grow very rapidly 
until they are as long as the creatures them¬ 
selves. 
Another curious feature concerning the tad¬ 
poles is that during the early days of their 
