CERATODUS*PORST ERI 
frog, but in festooned ropes, consisting of a single row of 
eggs, which are connected by glutinous matter, and 
moored by it to handy rocks and stones. This provi- 
sion of nature is very intelligible in view of the localities 
in which Megalobatrachus dwells. For in rapidly- 
moving streams the eggs, if laid singly and without 
this viscous protection, would be liable to be carried off 
and destroyed in the sea. As it is they remain anchored 
safely until the appearance of the young. The lady 
salamander, having done her duty in producing the eggs, 
leaves the equally important task of watching over them 
to her mate, who is so assiduous that he will not even 
allow the mother to visit her progeny, but at once drives 
her away. The little salamanders when they leave the 
egg are about an inch long, and they have, like the 
larve of other amphibians, external branching out- 
growths, which are the gills. 
THE Mup FisH 
The mud fish of Australia, Cevatodus forstert, is one 
of the latest additions of importance to zoological litera- 
ture. Before the year 1870 it had inhabited unremarked 
its native rivers ; in that year it was for the first time 
described, and to the Zoological Society. It is pecu- 
larly appropriate therefore that the first living speci- 
mens to reach Europe were those acquired by the 
Zoological Society and deposited in the Gardens a year 
or two back. The pair now in the Reptile House are 
believed to be a pair, that is, a male and female; but 
they have shown no anxiety to prove this view by lay- 
ing eggs; this, however, is a matter for less regret at 
the present moment, since the breeding habits of the 
fish and the nature of its hatched-out larvee have been 
made known to us by Dr. Semon, who voyaged to the 
remote spots, selected by Cevatodus as a dwelling-place, 
299 
