Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/270

262 enclosed eggs are hatched, and the young tadpoles pass their stage of existence within the cells, from which they do not emerge until they have passed their metamorphosis, and assumed the form of the adult animal, though very small. This takes place in about eighty-two days from the time when the eggs were first placed on the back of the mother. Those cells which occupy the middle part of the back are first evacuated, doubtless because they were first occupied. The mother, relieved of her charge, now resorts to the land, where, it is reported, she frees herself from her honey-combed skin by rubbing her body against a stone.