It may here be mentioned that small tadpoles of any kind can with advantage be used as cleaners of delicate and small {271}skeletons. The object is put into a vessel, and the tadpoles will soon nibble and rasp away all the edible portions, leaving the skeletal framework beautifully cleaned. But they require attention lest they rasp away the cartilage. The tadpole stage lasts three to four months; but cold, absence of sunshine, and scarcity of food delay the metamorphosis well into the end of summer, or force them to hibernate in the unfinished condition. They are very gregarious, and when the tadpoles of several families combine, they make imposing shows. By the time that their hind-limbs begin to sprout, they frequently combine into large shoals, and instead of always feeding they swim about in their tens of thousands, all moving in the same direction, and making almost regular evolutions. Mill-ponds with steep banks are good places for watching these peculiar habits. The tadpoles reach a considerable size, the total length averaging 2½ inches, or some 60 mm. the tail taking up ⅔ of the whole length. Specimens which measure more than 3 inches are rare. The baby-frogs hop on land while still provided with a stumpy tail; when this is resorbed the little creature is scarcely half-an-inch long, and for the rest of the available season leads a rather more terrestrial life than ever after. _Ex Africa semper aliquid novi!_ Quite recently Boulenger has received a consignment of Anura from the French Congo, amongst which were several new, remarkable genera, notably _Trichobatrachus_ and _Gampsosteonyx_. Both are true Ranidae. Pupil vertical, with vomerine teeth. Omosternum with a bony style. The outer metatarsals are bound together. In _Trichobatrachus robustus_ the toes are webbed, and both sexes have the flanks and corresponding portions of the thighs covered with numerous darkly pigmented, filamentous, cutaneous excrescences; these are several millimeters in length, giving the flanks and thighs a "hairy" appearance. Mr. F. F. Laidlaw has examined these structures. Their most remarkable feature is the presence in them of a great number of ordinary flask-shaped cutaneous glands, whilst such glands are scarce on the surrounding skin. They differ in no way from those seen in sections of the skin of the Common Frog. The fibrous connective tissue is dense and vascular; the pigment-cells are most plentiful at the base. Contrary to expectation no nerve-endings were found in these filaments. {272}_Gampsosteonyx_ has free toes. The terminal joints of the digits stand out beyond the skin, and end in sharp, bony claws, like those of a cat.