THE OPEN SEA 87 



water - measurers (Hydrometridae) which we 

 see skating about on the surface of stagnant 

 pools or even on quiet reaches of a stream, 

 but if we had been asked for the unlikeliest 

 haunt for an insect we should surely have said 

 the open sea or the deep sea. The sea- 

 skimmers appear to feed on floating dead 

 animals, and when it is stormy they sink 

 below the troubled waters how, we do not 

 know. Another interesting point is that the 

 mother sea-skimmer has been seen carrying 

 her eggs about with her after they have been 

 laid. 



TURTLES 



Among the higher animals of the open sea 

 must be reckoned some of the turtles ; not the 

 edible turtle, perhaps, for it is a vegetarian, 

 and must, therefore, keep for the most part to 

 the shore haunt, where seaweeds grow, but the 

 carnivorous Hawksbill and the Loggerhead 

 the latter occasionally found on British coasts. 

 There is also the rare Leathery or Lyre Turtle 

 of most warm seas, a veritable pelagic giant. 

 Dr. F. A. Lucas, Director of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, tells us that he 



