274 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



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

 one of the hardy 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. I 

 have never tried to drown a box- tortoise, but have found 

 them dead in springs, into which they had fallen. Whether 

 they died from suffocation or starvation could not be de- 

 termined, but the fact that they are better lunged and 

 thicker skinned would show that they could not be de- 

 prived of direct access to the atmosphere without fatal 

 effect ; but all the others, it would appear, being thinner 

 skinned, could depend safely upon their power of skin 

 respiration. 



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 



