p. 10 | QUEER WAYS OF THE TOAD

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 14, 1897

QUEER WAYS OF THE TOAD.

PATERNAL affection, says the London News, is not perhaps the precise emotion that we should be disposed to look for in the cold-blooded frog. But the Surinam toad—of which no less than ten specimens have just arrived at the Zoo—appears to exhibit the praiseworthy attitude of mind toward his numerous progeny.

When his mate lays her eggs, the solicitous father places them carefully upon her back, where in due time their presence causes an irritation that produces numerous small holes, into which the eggs forthwith drop. In these cells, which, from mutual pressure, get to be hexagonal, like honeycomb, the young frogs are finally hatched, and for a bit scramble about their mother's back, hiding in their nurseries when danger threatens, until old enough to more generally care for themselves.