The habits and oviposition of the "Clawed Toad" have been described by Leslie.[73] The Boers call it "Plathander," _i.e._ flat hand. Entirely aquatic, it rests floating in the water, with the nostrils exposed, and leaves the water only if it has to change the locality on account of drought or scarcity of food. The pairing takes place, at least at Port Elizabeth, in the early spring, _i.e._ in the month of August. The only sound which is emitted is heard during this time, a very slight and dull tick-tick, audible at only a few feet distance. The male grasps the female by the loins; the eggs are extruded singly, measuring only 1.5 mm. in diameter, but swell to double that size. They are attached singly to stones or water-plants. {147}[Illustration: FIG. 29.–_Xenopus laevis._ Clawed Toad, adult and larvae, × ⅔.] {148}Latterly these creatures have frequently been brought over to England. They stand confinement very well, even in a little aquarium with sufficient water-weeds to keep the water fresh; and they do not require special heat. They greedily snap up worms, strips of liver, or meat, and poke the food in with their hands. A few kept by Boulenger in a glass jar have lived for the last eleven years in the ordinary temperature of a room in London. Curiously enough they are often in amorous embrace, regardless of the season, but they have never shown any signs of spawning. Some of those in the Zoological Gardens in London laid eggs on Saturday the 27th of May, and on the morning of the following Monday the larvae were already hatched. They have been described by Beddard.[74] The larvae are provided with an unpaired circular, ventral sucker. The tentacles begin to sprout out on the sixth day after hatching, at first not in connexion with the cranial cartilage, but soon a cartilaginous rod runs into the tentacle from the ethmoid "just above the joint with the under jaw.". Boulenger has most reasonably compared these organs with the "balancers" of _Triton_ and _Amitystoma_ (cf. p. 46 for the possible homologies of the balancers). The tentacles soon reach a great length and give the tadpole a curious appearance. In tadpoles of _X. calcaratus_, 65 mm. long, the tentacles are 30 mm. long, and are inserted just at the angle of the mouth. By the time that these tadpoles show their fore-limbs, the feelers are reduced to 4 mm. in length, and their relative position has been shifted to a little above the angle of the gape, and whilst the latter gradually extends further and further back, the feelers come to lie, or rather remain, below and a little in front of the eyes. The tadpoles have no traces of horny teeth. External gills project as low conical or lamellar processes from the first three branchial arches, but so-called internal gills are not developed.