| OCR Text |
Show SUniNAM TOAD. The Surinam toad Is also the possessor pos-sessor of one of the strangest nurseries known to science. It lives Ip the dense tropical forests of Guiana and Ilraslt, and Is a true water hunter. Hut at the breeding season the female undergoes under-goes a curious change ot Integument. The skin on her back grows pulpy, soft and Jelly-like. She lays her eggs In the water, but as soon as she has laid them her lord am) master plasters them on her Impressionable back with bis feet, so as to secure them from all assaults of enemies, i.very egg Is pressed separately Into a bed ot the soft skin, which soon closes over It automatically, thus burying each In a little cell or niche, where It undergoes Its further development. The tadpoles pass through their larval stage within the cell and then hop out, aa the Illustration Il-lustration shows, In the four-legged condition. As soon aa they have gone off to shift for themselves the mother toad finds herself with a ragged and honeycombed skin which mutt bo ver7 uncomfortable. So she rubs the remnant rem-nant ot It against stones or the baric SURINAM TOAD CARRYING HER FAMILY. f trees, and redevelopes a similar back afresh at the next breeding season. |
