This animal, so repulsive in form, has been furnished by nature with a most efficient defensive armature; namely, an acrid secretion which will be described farther on. It is a bad leaper, an obscure and solitary creature, which shuns the sight of man, as if it comprehended the blot it is on the fair face of creation. It is, nevertheless, susceptible of education, and has occasionally been tamed; but these occasions have been rare. Pennant, the zoologist, relates some curious details respecting a poor Toad, which took refuge under the staircase of a house. It was accustomed to come every evening into a dining-room near to the place of its retreat. When it saw the light it allowed itself to be placed on a table, where they gave it worms, wood-lice, and various insects. As no attempt was made to injure it, there were no signs of irritation when it was touched, and it soon became, from its gentleness (the gentleness of a Toad!), the object of general curiosity; even ladies stopped to see this strange animal. The poor Batrachian lived thus for six and thirty years; and it would probably have lived much longer had not a Crow, tamed, and, like it, a guest in the house, attacked him at the entrance of his hole, and put out one of his eyes. From that time he languished, and died at the end of a year. [Illustration: Fig. 8.--Surinam Toad (_Pipa monstrosa_).] Nearly allied to the Toads, _Bufo_, the Surinam Toad, _Pipa_, holds its place. Its physiognomy is at once hideous and peculiarly odd: the head is flat and triangular, a very short neck separates it from the trunk, which is itself depressed and flattened. Its eyes are extremely small, of an olive, more or less bright, dashed with small reddish spots. It has no tongue. There is only one species of Pipa, viz. the American Pipa (Fig. 8), which inhabits Guiana and several provinces of Brazil. The most remarkable feature in this Batrachian is its manner of reproduction. It is oviparous, and when the female has laid her eggs, the male takes them, and piles upon the back of his companion these, his hopes of posterity. The female, bearing the fertilized eggs upon her back, reaches the marshes, and there immerses herself; but the skin of the back which supports the eggs soon becomes inflamed, erysipelatous inflammation follows, causing an irritation, produced by the presence of eggs, which are then absorbed into the skin, and disappear in the integument until hatched. The young Pipa Toads are rapidly developed in these dorsal cells, but they are extricated at a less advanced stage than almost any other vertebrate animal. After extrication, the tadpole grows rapidly, and the chief change of form is witnessed in the gills. As to the mother Batrachian, it is only after she has got rid of her progeny that she abandons her aquatic residence.[9]