2Y4: RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



pany, at least, and occasionally lie makes a meal of some 

 one of the Lardy visitors which, like himself, brave the 

 winter, and does not seek to avoid its rigors by a pro- 

 tracted, torpid sleep in the mud. 



Of the series of ten species of turtles that I have men- 

 tioned, some of them, it may be, are so sensitive to cold 

 that they hibernate regularly, and for about one half of 

 the year ; but in the case of the snapper, mud-turtle, and 

 stinking or musk-turtle, the habit at best is neither gen- 

 eral nor regular. And yet it is probable that these 

 three species, though they do not hibernate regularly, yet 

 do so when cut off from access to the atmosphere by the 

 growth of thick ice ; for, while these turtles can stay 

 under the water for a comparatively long time, yet, if all 

 their other functions are active, respiration must neces- 

 sarily be active also ; and it is questionable how long they 

 can live without access to the air, notwithstanding the 

 fact that, like the frogs, they can absorb sufficient air 

 through their skins, and so remain beneath the surface 

 for a long time, if the water be thoroughly aerated. In 

 Agassiz's monograph on our turtles occurs the following 

 sentence : " In mud and soft-shelled turtles, the lungs 

 being much reduced in size and importance, by far the 

 greater part of the respiration must be performed by 

 the skin of the whole body, which is much thinner 

 in these families than in other turtles; while, on the 

 contrary, in. . . the Cistudo (box-tortoise) the powers 

 of respiration are no doubt performed entirely by the 

 lungs." 



In the case of skin-respiration by the frog, Professor 

 Semper has stated, in his volume entitled " Animal Life," 

 that "Milne-Edwards the elder showed long since that 

 frogs, when prevented from coming to the surface, were 

 able to live under water so long as they were not cut off 



