. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. VI RAXIXAE 243 from Continental Africa, a few from ^Madagascar and the islands in the Indian Ocean. A. seychellensis.—Brauer ^ has discovered the mode of nursing of this frog. He foimd a specimen of A. seychellensis which carried nine tadpoles on its back, in the month of August, in the Sey- chelles, about 1500 feet above sea-level, upon an old tree-fern. The little ones were ah'eady provided with long tails, the hind-limbs were partly free, the fore-limbs still covered by the skin, and they held on by their bellies; not, like the young of Fhyllohates,


. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. VI RAXIXAE 243 from Continental Africa, a few from ^Madagascar and the islands in the Indian Ocean. A. seychellensis.—Brauer ^ has discovered the mode of nursing of this frog. He foimd a specimen of A. seychellensis which carried nine tadpoles on its back, in the month of August, in the Sey- chelles, about 1500 feet above sea-level, upon an old tree-fern. The little ones were ah'eady provided with long tails, the hind-limbs were partly free, the fore-limbs still covered by the skin, and they held on by their bellies; not, like the young of Fhyllohates, by their " ; Another specimen carried young which were still further developed. He also found an old frog, near which was lying a little heap of eggs, not enveloped in a common mass of jelly. The old frog escaped, but the eggs were taken care of in a vessel with moist sand at the bottom. By the following morning the eggs were hatched and the tadpoles were clinging by their ^^^ ^-Arthrolep^seychei- bellies on to the walls of the glass. lensis, carrying Tadpoles. Brauer concludes that the young, when ^ ^- (^"'" ^'''"""•^ hatched, creep on to the parents' back, he or she waiting near the heap of eggs imtil the latter are ready. Curiously enough, he did not find out the sex of the nurse, nor are we told if the young are taken to the nearest water to finish their metamorphosis, or if they remain upon the parent's back until they hop off as baby-frogs. The yolk is very large. When the four limbs are already developed, the gill-cavity possesses no gills and no outer opening; and since the lungs are only just beginning to sprout, the tad- pole must needs breathe by means of its skin. The jaws have no horny coverings. The adults live on the groimd between moist leaves, and eat chiefly termites. Cornufer, with about twelve species, is an essentially Austro- Malayan and Polynesian genus, but one species, C. joh nstorii, has been found in the


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1895