52 



ly seized directly in the jaws, while large ones are grasped 

 in the legs, all of which point forward for this very pur- 

 pose and wliich are entirely unsuited to walking. They 

 often seize smaller dragon-flies, small moths and butter- 

 flies, occasionally one as large as a Papilio, but the food 

 consists in the main of flies and gnats. 



There are several thousand species of dragon-flies and 

 the complete life histories of none of them are known. 

 They furnish an excellent field for the careful investigator 

 and an interesting one for all Nature-lovers. With this 

 brief mention we will leave the dragon-flies and turn our 

 attention to those dark oval objects perched on the float- 

 ing log across the pond: — 



TURTLES. 



The turtles most often met with are the Painted Terra- 

 pin, the Speckled Terrapin and the !Mud or Snapping 

 Turtle . The two former species are most frequently seen 

 basking on floating logs or stumps^ ready to slide off at the 

 least indication of danger. The Painted Terrapin is the 

 most beautiful of all pond turtles, readily recognized by 

 the red and black markings around the circumference of 

 its shell, these showing most brilliantly on the under side. 

 The Speckled Terrapin, which has bright yellow spots on 

 its black upper shell, is also very common in slow moving 

 brooks and ditches. 



The natural food of pond turtles consists of water in- 

 sects, shell-fish, tadpoles, frogs and fish. Therefore it is 

 not safe to introduce any except the very smallest into 

 aquaria containing fish. They can be easily kept by them- 

 selves, however, feeding them upon bits of raw meat, fish 

 and flies. There is some doubt as to the economic value of 

 turtles, some maintaining that they are \ery useful for 

 destroying weak or sick fish that might otherwise contam- 

 inate the healthy ones, while others claim that they catch 

 and devour quantities of healtliy food fishes. I think there 



