312 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



cause of their leaving the place in search of some more congenial abode. 

 In the beginning of June in that year a Tortoise with a marked carapace 

 was twice found some distance away in a road, and in each case replaced in 

 the pond. On Nov. 25th, 1890, one was picked up in the village by a 

 boy and brought to me. It was apparently in good plight, and felt very 

 heavy, notwithstanding it had passed the winter at large. Another was 

 found in the summer of 1891, and I was told that during that of 1893 a 

 boy picked one up, but I did not see it. On Feb. 10th of the present 

 year (1894) some men ditching in the meadows, rather less than a quarter- 

 of-a-mile from the pond, threw out with the mud two Tortoises. They 

 placed one of them on the meadow, at some distance from the ditch, and 

 went on with their work, but it soon made its way back to the water, and 

 I afterwards saw its tracks across the wet mud. They said that they had 

 also found one on the " wall delf," at a spot several hundred yards further 

 from the pond, when at work there shortly before Christmas; and that, 

 about three years before, they threw one out of a ditch which is over a 

 quarter-of-a-mile from their old quarters, and in the opposite direction. On 

 April 8th last a boy brought to the house a fine healthy specimen, which 

 he had found basking on a piece of wood by the river Aide, about half-a-mile 

 off. It felt heavy, and had a very perfect and handsome shell, the markings 

 being particularly bright, clear and distinct, as if surrounding conditions 

 had been favourable to its well being. Yet another was brought to me on 

 April 16th, which had been taken from a ditch near Iken Cliff, between 

 two and three miles from the pond from which it had wandered Since 

 these specimens were placed in the pond in May, 1889, no others have 

 been turned out here, and it is very unlikely that anyone else in the neigh- 

 bourhood can have liberated any ; therefore four at least out of the original 

 eleven must have survived five English winters. On fine bright days, 

 while in the pond, several of these Water-tortoises would often clamber 

 upon a floating log in the sunniest part of the water, and there remain 

 basking in the warm rays ; but so alert and quick were they to perceive 

 any threatening danger, that if anyone approached at all near to them, 

 however noiselessly, they would drop off one by one into the water like 

 stones. Those in the ditches are fond of lying, in hot weather, upon the 

 " scum " on the surface of the water, with the head raised high in the air, 

 so as to get as good a view as possible of their surroundings, in order, 

 perhaps, to guard against a surprise. Sometimes the brightly-spotted head 

 and wide-awake-looking eye is all that can be seen above the surface- Up 

 to the present time I have not seen or heard of any young Tortoises, and 

 should be very glad to know of any instance of the breeding of Emys lutaria 

 in this country. Since writing the above we have turned out a few more. — 

 G. T. Rope (Blaxhall, Suffolk). 



