74 



aquatic fUte 



that the specimen was rather sickly, and 

 that it doubtless would not live long. 

 When placed in deep water it was totally 

 unable to swim to the bottom, in order 

 to secure the pieces of worms fed to it. 

 This inability was evidently caused by 

 the hollow hump on its back acting as a 

 float, and preventing the animal from 

 diving. There was no trouble in this 

 way for the anterior half of its body ; but 

 when the hump came to the level of the 

 surface, all its efforts to get below it 

 failed. Such a disability would surely 

 act as a serious handicap in nature, and 

 it certainly did not conduce to its comfort 

 or happiness in captivity. Whether it 

 had anything to do with its death, which 

 occurred in due course, it would be hard 

 to say. As I desired a complete osteo- 

 logical specimen of this species, I made 

 no dissection or post-mortem to discover 

 the conditions present. I feel quite sure, 

 however, that it was but a second ex- 

 ample of the state of things I had de- 

 scribed in the young Painted Turtle, re- 

 ferred to above. 



This Muhlenberg's turtle presented 

 another curious thing, never before no- 

 ticed by me in any turtle. Its plastron, 

 on its outer surface, was of a pale, deep 

 yellow, with an irregular central figure, 

 and surrounded externally by a jet black 

 pattern. Now after the demise of the 

 specimen, it was left for ten days or 

 more on a window-sill, which was paint- 

 ed white. As there was no occasion to 

 disturb it, it remained in one place for 

 several days. Upon picking it up, I 

 found that the black figure on the surface 

 of the plastron was printed in deep 

 black on the white sill of the window, 

 and no amount of ordinary scrubbing 

 would remove it. Three more times the 

 dead turtle was pushed to another place 

 on the sill, and each time another print 

 was left on the white paint, though each 



new one was several shades lighter than 

 the preceding one. Nothing like this has 

 ever been noticed by me previously ; and 

 I believe that it will require a very ef- 

 ficient scourer to eventually remove these 

 remarkable stains. 



Phalloptychus januarius 



GEORGE S. MYERS 



The spotted tooth-carp, Phalloptychus 

 januarius, formerly called Girardinus re- 

 ticiilatus by aquarists, is a native of 

 Brazil. It seems to be the least offensive 

 of the live-bearing fishes, which with its 

 distinctive coloring has made it a popu- 

 lar aquarium fish. 



The ground color is yellowish, over 

 which is distributed many black spots 

 and blotches which may extend to the 

 fins. In common with most of the fishes 

 of the group to which it belongs the fe- 

 male is largest, reaching a length of one 

 and three-quarter inches, half an inch 

 longer than the male. 



Consistent with its size, the number of 

 young produced in a litter is not great. 

 but a goodly proportion will survive as 

 the female is not particularly cannibalis- 

 tic and will often permit the young 

 to grow up in the same tank unmolested. 

 To conserve food for the youngsters, 

 however, it is well to remove the parent. 



The best dry food is shrimp ground to 

 a suitable size, while Daphne ranks first 

 among live foods. In my experience the 

 fish does not seem to care for the white 

 worm, Bnchytraeus albidus. 



"The men who make the best hus- 

 bands," says a writer, "are those who 

 possess the knotty type of foot with 

 square toes." But a young friend of 

 ours, addicted to stopping late, says they 

 make the worst kind of prospective 

 fathers-in-law. — London Opinion. 



