. Natural history. Zoology. FROGS AND TOADS. 439. that all these subsist more or less exclusively on ants and termites. A large proportion of these frogs are nocturnal in their habits, and these may be recognised by the vertical pupil of the eye. Although many have discs at the tips of the toes, none of these are tree-haunting species. A consider- able number of members of the family are, however, burrowers ; and in these the hind-bmbs are unusually powerful, and are also specially protected by homy sheathings. Others, again, pass a large portion of their time in the water. It would be profitl
. Natural history. Zoology. FROGS AND TOADS. 439. that all these subsist more or less exclusively on ants and termites. A large proportion of these frogs are nocturnal in their habits, and these may be recognised by the vertical pupil of the eye. Although many have discs at the tips of the toes, none of these are tree-haunting species. A consider- able number of members of the family are, however, burrowers ; and in these the hind-bmbs are unusually powerful, and are also specially protected by homy sheathings. Others, again, pass a large portion of their time in the water. It would be profitless to give in this place the distinctive character- istics of all tha genera included in this extensive family ; and attention may accordingly be confined to a few which are noteworthy on account of some peculiarity in the habits of their representatives. Foremost among these is the Chilian Darwin's frog {Bhinoderma danrini), in which the female has transferred the task of carrying and tending the eggs and young to her partner. Whereas there is nothing remarkable about the structure of the female of this frog, the male has a capacious pouch underlying the whole of the lower surface of the body, which communicates with the exterior by means of a pair of apertures opening into the mouth on each side of the tongue. As soon as his partner has deposited Fig. 4.—Darwin's Fbog (Ehinoderma darwini) her eggs, the male frog takes them in his front paws and transfers them to his mouth, whence they pass into the great nursing pouch, where they remain in perfect security till hatched into young frogs, which make their way into the world by the same passages. The tadpoles never develop gills, and this frog is the sole member of its genus. Equally noteworthy are the African frogs constituting the genus Breviceps. These species, which take their name from the small size and short- ness of the head, would almost seem to have given rise to the fable of the ox and the frog, since they have the
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