152 LIMN^A PEREGRA. 



appear to have held on with some firmness, for the turtles were 

 swimming about with the LimncEce still keeping their seat upon 

 them. But still more curious is the case recorded by Mr. Standey, 

 who states that in 1883 he saw a full-grown specimen oi L. peregra 

 upon the back of a toad, which was tramping leisurely along the 

 road in the dusk of the evening in the vicinity of Goosnargh, near 

 Preston, about twenty yards from the water of a roadside pond. 



It is said to breed in August, but this, I think, must be a 

 mistake, as my own experience has always been that they have 

 deposited their spawn in March, April, and May. We are told 

 that one individual deposits upwards of a thousand eggs. The 

 eggs are round, colourless, or pellucid, with a whitish, opaque spot 

 at one end. They generally number from forty to eighty or more 

 in one mass, and are enclosed in narrow, cylindrical shaped masses 

 of gelatinous or protoplasmic substance. The opaque spot 

 becomes larger from day to day, and for several days before it 

 leaves the mass it may be seen moving backwards and forwards. 



Most of the full-grown animals which deposit their eggs in 

 early summer at once die off, resembling in this particular many 

 other of the lower order of animals, which seem to have attained 

 their purpose when they have perpetuated their kind. 



M. Bouchard-Chantereaux says that the eggs hatch in from 

 fifteen to sixteen days, but no doubt in this, as in other species, 

 the length of time will depend in a great measure upon the tem- 

 perature. Mr. E. J. Lowe, in his excellent little work on The 

 Conchology of Nottingham^ says that it breeds in August ; whilst 

 the late Mr. Charles Ashford, with his usual accuracy, says : " Fry 

 innumerable during May ; no adults to be found after June." 

 This T believe to be the experience of all outdoor naturalists. It 

 is gregarious and rather active, being fond of floating on the 

 surface of the water with the shell hanging down. It shares with 

 its congener, L. trtincatula, the habit of leaving the water and 

 making peregrinations on the damp mud, sometimes to some dis- 

 tance from the water. 



Although, as a rule, animals of this species are vegetable 

 feeders, they have often been rightly charged with destroying fish 

 in aquaria. There is also no doubt that they often eat the bodies 



