POND- TORTOISE 331 



Julv, but snakes have been known to pair so early as the end of March and so 

 late as September and October. The difference of sex is easily recognised, the 

 male being much smaller in size; sometimes two snakes will pair when the male 

 is only one-third the size of the female. In favourably situated places a few 

 couples may often be found in company ; and several female snakes will often 

 resort to the same spot to deposit their eggs. Should the sna*kes of one district 

 have discovered a favourable place for this purpose, it is used by almost all the 

 tribe ; and it thus sometimes happens that very large numbers of eggs are found 

 together. Similarly, at the time when the eggs are laid, a number of snakes may 

 be found in places where there are generally few or none. Since the pairing 

 of the ringed snake takes place, according to the weather, in May or June, and 

 as the development of the eggs requires about ten weeks, fresh eggs should be 

 looked for in the second half of July or even in the first half of September. 

 The eggs of the larger individuals are from 1 inch to 1^ inches long, and from 

 i to I of an inch broad. The number of eggs in a clutch seems to depend 

 upon the age of the female; sometimes there are thirty or even forty, but 

 generally only from fifteen to twenty-five. They are of a beautiful oval, rarely 

 pyriform, in shape, and are deposited in the same place at intervals of a quarter 

 or half an hour, or sometimes rather longer, the skin of the fresh eggs being- 

 sticky ; and, as they are laid in such a way as to touch one another, they join 

 together in a cluster or more rarely in a string. Under ordinary circumstances 

 the eggs are laid in such a state that they require a period of from seven to eight 

 weeks to fully develop; when this time has elapsed a small slit forms in the 

 covering of the egg, out of which creeps the cautious and inquisitive little snake. 

 If the young, which come into the world quite prepared for independent life, 

 leave the eggs late in the year and therefore in cold weather, they at once seek 

 a winter-abode, in which the}'- wait without food for the spring. 



The pond or marsh tortoise (Ernys orbicularis) is even more 

 fitted for life in the water than the ringed snake, being an almost 

 genuinely aquatic reptile. It is rather widely distributed, ranging from the 

 northern shores of the Mediterranean in the south to Mecklenburg and Courland 

 in the north, and from Portugal in the west to the Sea of Aral in the east. Its 

 occurrence in North Africa is doubtful, but it is found in the Pyrenean Peninsula, 

 and is a well-known inhabitant of the inland waters of the larger islands of the 

 Mediterranean. 



This elegantly spotted little tortoise, which is also called the mud-tortoise, avoids 

 rapid, stony, deep, and clear waters, and is therefore chiefly found in ponds sur- 

 rounded by thickets and choked with reeds, in fish-ponds, bogs, and pools connected 

 with larger ponds and lakes in which there are fish, and in sluggish rivers and other 

 similar water-courses. During the day it generally remains hidden in the water, 

 where it takes up its abode ; but when the weather is warm and calm and the sun 

 shines brightly it may be seen swimming at all hours, and in undisturbed spots will 

 often leave the water in order to bask in the sun. As a rule, it becomes lively only 

 in the evening, when on calm, warm, moonlight nights it will swim about and climb 

 out on to the bank, although never going far away from its haunt. In autumn it 

 retires at times to a hole dug by itself in the bank, in which it sleeps during the 



