The Surinam toad is one of the most curious, though, at the same time,
among the most hideous of batrachians. It is remarkable on account of
the extraordinary way in which its young are developed. The skin of the
female is separated, as is the case with others of its family, from the
muscles of the back, and is nearly half an inch thick. She deposits her
eggs, or spawn, at the brink of some stagnant water, when the male
manages to take them up in his paws and places them on her back, where
they adhere by means of a glutinous secretion, and are pressed into
cells which, at that time, are open to receive them. Gradually the
cells are closed by a membrane which grows over them, when her back
greatly resembles a piece of honeycomb, the cells of which are filled
and closed. Here, in the course of about three months, the eggs are
hatched, and the creatures undergo the usual change of the rest of the
genus; first assuming the form of tadpoles, and gradually acquiring
their complete shape. When perfected, and possessed of their limbs,
they work their way out of the cells; and it is a curious sight to see
them struggling out--their head and paws projecting in all directions
from their mother's back--and sliding down on the ground, when they
begin to hop merrily about.
The cells are considerably deeper than wide, and each would contain an
ordinary bean thrust endwise into it. The head of the creature is of an
unusual shape, as it has a snout with nostrils lengthened into a kind of
tube. The skin is of a brownish-olive above, and white below; and is
covered with a number of small, hard granules, with some horny
tubercular projections among them. After the brood have left the
mother's back, the cells again fill up--the whole process occupying
about eight days.
In spite of the repulsive appearance of the creature, the negroes
occasionally eat it.