330 COMMON REPTILES OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



repulsive by being thickly beset with hosts of flukes, 

 that form flickering fringes projecting from it and 

 waving to and fro in the surrounding water. Quite 

 irrespective of their ugliness, they are very uncanny 

 inmates of bathing-ponds, as they are highly car- 

 nivorous, and can give very unpleasant bites with 

 their strong, chisel-edged mandibles. It is a curious 

 sight when the still surface of a pond is gently 

 parted as a tortoise rises to protrude his grey snake- 

 like head and neck, and gaze around with dull 

 little eyes, ready on the slightest alarm to slip 

 down again into the depths, oaring his way by 

 vigorous strokes of his stout short legs. Their 

 curious rounded eggs are often to be found lying in 

 heaps among the grass at the edge of the water. 

 Their shells are so thick and hard that it seems 

 strange that the young ones should ever manage to 

 force their way out, but they can do so with great 

 rapidity under the influence of a sufficient stimulus. 

 I once put a clutch of eggs into a bottle of strong 

 spirit, and within the course of a few minutes, all 

 the shells had been broken by the struggles of the 

 young animals within them. 



