180 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
considerable time after the hind. They first appear as buds 
on the side of the tadpole, the left arm. developing before the 
right. These little chaps are frequently to be observed floating, 
all limbs extended, on the surface of pools, and swim and dive 
with surprising celerity. Tadpoles which I raised at home 
generally left the water about the fourth day after the acqui- 
sition of their limbs. The tail is still present when they leave 
the water, and may be found on quite large frogs. My tadpoles 
were caught at all ages, and reared in an old tin basin on the 
bottom of which was a layer of earth, an inch or so thick. 
Those tadpoles which throve and developed the most rapidly 
were fed on meat. A few small scraps of any meat would 
suffice for a day’s feed for forty individuals. A tadpole when 
eating seems to suck; it can scarcely be called nibbling. I 
have frequently got one to tackle my finger, and the sensation 
is like a faint tickling. The horny lower-lip can be distinctly 
felt. Some tadpoles once nibbled some bread I gave them, but 
they died very shortly afterward. Whether this was due to 
the effect of the. bread on the digestion of the tadpole, or 
fermentation poisoning the water, is uncertain, but I am inclined 
to favour the latter theory. Tadpoles kept in a perfectly clear 
jar also died. Too much sunlight also affects them. My most 
successful results were obtained from tadpoles kept in a room, 
and whose water was changed daily. A very efficient way of 
changing the water is to let the tap gently run into the full 
aquarium, as this gradually replaces the stale water and does 
not disturb either the tadpoles or the position of articles in the 
aquarium. 
To continue with the story of my excursion, however, a few 
minutes after my first capture I had specimens in all three 
stages of growth, a fact that proves that the breeding season 
extends over some considerable period, since it takes a tadpole 
some time to get his hind limbs, and these he has for a good 
while before his fore-legs appears I have not as yet been able 
to take the time for each process, but the time that elapsed 
between the appearance of the “buds” to the acquisition of 
developed fore limbs was, in a specimen of Hyla aurea, 2'1 inches 
in length, nine days. Shortly after bagging my tadpoles I had 
.the good fortune to disturb a colony of H. phyllochroa, and a 
dozen or so of these pretty little fellows were soon transferred 
to my jar. 
The way I manage to carry frogs and tadpoles in the same 
jar is this: I put not more than two inches of water in the jar 
-and then insert ‘a fair-sized bunch of weeds, this serving as a 
rest for the frogs. But even with this, tiny specimens -of 
H. phyllochroa were not happy until I was able to transfer them 
to a drier jar. This capture was followed shortly by the 
finding of absolutely the smallest frogs it has been my fortune 
to see. In the lack of definite details as to their proportions, 
aes 
