Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/269

Rh covered with reddish tubercles. It has a granulated back, with three longitudinal ranges of larger granules. It inhabits cellars and obscure corners of houses in Guiana, and other parts of South America, where, notwithstanding its repulsive aspect, its flesh is eaten with relish by the negroes.

The continuation of the species in this Reptile is attended with phenomena no less extraordinary than its figure. The female presents at certain times the strange spectacle of a great number of young ones in various stages of development, lodged in or proceeding from cells dispersed over the upper surface of her body. It was at one period supposed that the eggs were produced in these cells, and not deposited in the usual manner; but it is now known that the female deposits her spawn at the edge of some stagnant pool, where the male, collecting it with great care, places it on the broad and flat back of his mate. The presence of the ova is believed to produce a sort of suppuration, whereby a number of pits or circular cells are formed in the substance of the skin; these are about half an inch in depth and a quarter of an inch in diameter. Each of these having received an egg, closes over it, and thus the skin resembles the closed cells of a honey-comb. The cells are formed only in the substance of the skin, which is thickened for the purpose, and do not penetrate to the muscles beneath. The true skin is indeed separated from the muscles by large reservoirs of fluid.

The female Pipa, having received her burden, retires into the water; and in due time the