22 THE UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



Notonecta, the little Plea, and Corixids in both numbers and 

 variety were here. Ranatra and Nepa, too, came into the 

 catch often enough to call them plentiful. Of all the places 

 the writer has ever collected, this pool in late fall and early- 

 winter has been the best collecting. 



East of the Field Station there is a little stretch of water, 

 connected with the Fall Creek outlet, in which there is a 

 dense growth of water shamrock in summer. In midsummer 

 the floating leaves of this plant make footing for the surface 

 forms such as Mesovelias, Microvelias and Hebrids. In earli- 

 est spring the brown tangle of the stems of the previous year's 

 growth harbored hundreds of Notonecta variabilis. These 

 scattered to other regions for breeding purposes and were 

 not abundant in June. 



Bool's Backwater: A very few minutes brisk walk east of 

 the Insectary at Cornell takes one about the border of the 

 Beebe Lake and across a couple blocks of Forest Home to a 

 steep bank overlooking a strip of land bordering an abandoned 

 channel of Fall Creek. This old channel can be followed to its 

 junction with Fall Creek at its upper end. Near this point 

 arises the first of a series of clear pools which are fed by 

 seepage from Fall Creek, by springs or by both, and which, 

 in turn, overflow to form a little brook that trickles along over 

 large water-worn stones covered by vast quantities of brown 

 gelatinous growths of diatoms, to come finally to the quiet 

 body of water filling the old channel for a considerable dis- 

 tance back from its union with Fall Creek, due to the dam- 

 ming of the latter a short way below. This is Bool's Back- 

 water. Its waters are fresh but still, and great beds of Elodea 

 and Chara occupy ever-increasing areas as the season ad- 

 vances. The bottom is somewhat muddy and the shallow mar- 

 gins deeply covered with a flocculent organic ooze, ideal food 

 for the boatmen. And here, indeed, two species of Corixids 

 were to be taken in countless numbers. Because of this fact 

 and its accessibility, this place was chosen for daily observa- 

 tion and notes taken on these frequent visitations are else- 

 where recorded. 



Ringwood Hollow : A series of interesting pools and marshy 

 meadows in Ringwood Hollow were visited at rather frequent 

 intervals throughout the season. These were reached by a short 

 ride on the train, followed by perhaps three miles of walking. 



