APRIL SIGNS. 33 
We have found in April in small ponds, just before 
its season is over, one of the most interesting of the 
Phyllopod Crustacea, the Branchipus vernalis, Verrill. 
“These Crustacea,’ says Professor Packard, “are of 
singular beauty and interest in themselves, and their 
movements while swimming on their backs very grace- 
ful. Moreover, when we consider the habits of all the 
Phyllopods; their singular means of adaptation to great 
changes in their environment; the great vitality of the 
species; when we take into account their weak and 
delicate individual organization, and when we note their 
interesting metamorphoses and many points in their 
structure, we are forced to conclude that the Phyllo- 
pods are the most interesting of all the Crustacea.” 
They live mostly in pools of fresh water liable to dry 
up in summer. The eggs after being fertilized and 
borne about for a time finally drop to the bottom of 
the pool. Here they must lie in the dried mud, after 
the water has evaporated, until the autumn rains again 
fill the pool, the young hatch out and a new cycle be- 
gins. Those which we gathered and kept in a large 
glass globe lived but two or three days and appeared 
to dissolve in the water, leaving scarcely a trace. They 
have been found in southern New England from the last 
of November to the first of May, but have not yet been 
found during the summer, being then represented by 
the eggs alone. This might seem at first sight to indi- 
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