FRESH- WATER ANIMALS. 307 



had been gradually prepared by feeding partially on animal 

 food before their final development, and the author of the 

 ' History of British Eeptiles ' relates that, suspecting a 

 fratricidal disposition among the little creatures, he placed 

 several more or less advanced specimens in a large globe of 

 water, and '^observed that almost as soon as one had ac- 

 quired its limbs it was found dead at the bottom of the 

 water and the remaining Tadpoles feeding upon it. This 

 took place with all of them successively excepting the last, 

 which lived on to complete its change, and for a consider- 

 able time afterwards." 



These amphibious creatures live in great enjoyment in 

 fresh-water Yivaria combined with fern -cases, as introduced 

 by Mr. Lloyd, in which Frogs and jNTewts can leave the 

 water for a while and disport themselves merrily among the 

 branches of Ferns in the upper part of the case, and then 

 hop or glide down again into the water below. They are 

 fond also of finding anything that will float on the surface 

 and sustain the weight of their bodies. In a garden tank 

 belonging to a friend at Croydon, round the sides of which 

 a kind of grotto is built, there is, among minerals, plants, 

 madrepores, and shells, a large specimen of Haliotis, or ear- 

 shell. It is a large open shell, and, the holes being stopped 



