

LAND AND FRESH-WATER SHELLS. 419 
fact every surface covered by the water, is full of life in 
some of its most singular and wonderful forms, some vege- 
table, some animal (Vol. I, pp. 505 to 530 inclusive; also 
T 587 to 595). 
The stagnant pool is also the winter residence of numerous 
Species of frogs and other Batrachians, for whose songs we 
listen in.the warm showery evenings of the opening spring. 
_ Hither come also the wanderers in the fields and forests to 
deposit their eggs, which appear first endowed with life as 
minute pollywogs or tadpoles, ultimating in toads and frogs. 
_ +he eft, or water-newt, a small brown salamander, marked 
_ With curious spots, is also found in the stagnant waters; and 
_ pools, on the borders of marshes, are the homes of various 
Species of turtles. The larve of mosquitoes, of which our 
_ country has a great variety of species, abound in stagnant 
_ Waters, and they will be readily found in every little puddle 
that has been a few days exposed to the sun’s warming influ- 

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w, 811) in somewhat greater abundance than in the 
_ ĉrowded stagnant waters, —also the larve of various species 
of Caddis-flies (Phryganea), who form for their protection 
litt tubes composed of fragments of wood, straws, etc., con- 
sy ted together by the silken secretion of the young insect. 
E "ers: and lakes on the stems of aquatic plants, in June 
"m July, will be found beneath the surface of the water 
merous Pupæ of a beautiful beetle, the mature insects glis- 
tening with burnished steel and bronze, flitting about and 
e themselves on the aquatic vegetation. 
e abounds around us everywhere. To call attention to 
* few forms that do not daily challenge familiar attention 







