"About the 28th of April 1896 the males became very lively, and were constantly heard uttering their most remarkable metallic, ticking call-notes. On examination we then observed two of the males clasping tightly round the lower part of the bodies of the females, the hind parts of the males extending beyond those of the females. On the following morning the keeper arrived in time to witness the mode in which the eggs were deposited. The oviduct of the female protruded from her body more than an inch in length, and the bladder-like protrusion being retroverted, passed under the belly of the male on to her own back. The male appeared to press tightly upon this protruded bag and to squeeze it from side to side, apparently pressing the eggs forward one by one on to the back of the female. By this movement the eggs were spread with nearly uniform smoothness over the whole surface of the back of the female to which they became firmly adherent. On the operation being completed, the males left their places on the females, and the enlarged and projected oviduct gradually disappeared from one of the females. In the other specimen, the oviduct appears not to have discharged the whole of the eggs." Boulenger, who examined this second specimen, which died, confirmed this egg-bound condition. He remarks further: "The ovipositor formed by the cloaca (not by the prolapsed uterus), was still protruding and much inflamed. It may be deduced from the observation made by the keeper, that fecundation must take place before the extrusion of the eggs, and it is probable that the ovipositor serves in the first instance to collect the spermatozoa which would penetrate into the oviducts, the eggs being laid in the impregnated condition, as in tailed Batrachians." SUB-ORDER 2. PHANEROGLOSSA–FAM. 1. DISCOGLOSSIDAE.–The tongue has the shape of a round disc, adherent by nearly the whole of its base, and it cannot be protruded. The vertebrae are opisthocoelous, and in the aquatic genera are of the most exaggerated epichordal type; the diapophyses of the second to the fourth vertebrae carry short, free ribs, and those of the sacral vertebra are dilated. The metasternum behind is forked. The {153}upper jaw and the vomers are provided with teeth. The males have no vocal sac. The tadpoles are distinguished by having the opercular spiracle placed in the middle of the thoracic region (see general anatomical part, p. 44). The few members of this family have a peculiar distribution. _Liopelma_ is confined to New Zealand, where it is the solitary representative of the Amphibia. _Ascaphus_ is found in North America. The other genera, _Discoglossus_, _Bombinator_, and _Alytes_, are typical of the Palaearctic sub-region, and are, with the exception of _Bombinator_, confined to the Western Provinces (cf. Map, Fig. 32, on p. 161).