aquatic JLitt 



Coming back to our young Wood Tur- 

 tle, which is strictly aquatic in its habits 

 in contradistinction to the adults of this 

 species, it is to be noted, in the specimen 

 here being considered, that the upper sur- 

 face of the carapace, the head, limbs and 

 tail, are all of a somewhat palish earth 

 brown, and present no markings of any 

 kind. The scalation of the legs and tail 

 is extremely fine and delicate, the head 

 being smooth, somewhat darker in color, 

 and the irides of the eyes a rich brown 

 color. 



Beneath, the plastron presents a ground 

 color of a pinkish shade, sometimes re- 

 ferred to as flesh color ; a large area, cen- 

 trally carried almost to the periphery, is 

 of a blackish brown ; while a restricted, 

 medio-longitudinal part, centrally situ- 

 ated, is of a whitish shade. This plastron 

 is of a sub-elliptical outline, a conspicuous 

 notch being formed by the two distal or 

 anal i cutes, while the gular ones, anter- 

 iorly, form neither a process nor a notch. 



In form the carapace above is of a 

 subcircular outline ; and, while scarcely 

 domed at all, it forms, medio-longitudi- 

 nally, a low, broad and rounded elevation, 

 hardly entitled to the name of crest. The 

 margin scutes are nearly square in out- 

 line, and very conspicuous. Omitting the 

 nuchal and pygal ones, they number ten 

 upon either side, the nuchal scute being 

 very small. 



The head may be withdrawn well 

 within the shell, and the strikingly long 

 tail, when curved around to one side, its 

 tip comes slightly beyond the base of the 

 fore limb opposite. The animal seems to 

 have no choice as to which side it brings 

 its tail against the shell ; while in swim- 

 ming, this appendage projects backwards 

 in the median line, with a length of a lit- 

 tle over three centimeters, the length of 

 the carapace being about three and a half 

 centimeters. 



This little turtle walks very well indeed 



on land, and is an excellent swimmer. 

 Except in the matter of general outline, 

 it bears no resemblance at all to the 

 young of any of our ordinary pond tur- 

 tles ; while upon the other hand, it re- 

 minds one very much of the young of our 

 common snapping turtles, here shown 

 upon three views in Figure 2. The 

 marked length of the tail in the two is 

 largely responsible for this, and the gen- 

 eral circularity of form. In the young 

 snapper, however, the posterior margin 

 of the shell presents a series of strongly 

 pronounced notches, a feature entirely 

 absent in the carapace of the young wood 

 tortoise. 



South Australian Society 



The South Australian Aquarium So- 

 ciety met on Tuesday, September nth, in 

 Mr. Hosking's rooms, Norwood. The 

 president, Mr. Edgar R. Waite, was in 

 the chair. 



Mr. Herbert M. Hale delivered an ad- 

 dress, illustrated by lantern slides, on the 

 photography of aquatic life. The first 

 series of slides dealt with the various 

 methods of obtaining such photographs. 

 Illustrations of the apparatus used by 

 Messrs. Williamson, well-known in con- 

 nection with undersea cinematographv, 

 were given. The aquarist may install an 

 arrangement similar in principle. A con- 

 crete pond with a window let in the side 

 has an underground observation cham- 

 ber. The fishes are photographed through 

 the window, and as the observation cham- 

 ber is kept quite dark, the operator is in- 

 visible to the fishes, the window acting 

 as a mirror to them. Inhabitants of the 

 pond are lighted from above as in nature, 

 and, being under natural conditions, are 

 likely to retain characteristic attitudes. 



In an aquarium, or when removed 

 from the water, many fishes appear sil- 

 very, and one wonders how they escape 

 detection by enemies. This appearance 



