9 2 The Museum Gazette 



i 



a day or two twice every month, when, at the lowest ebb of 

 the spring-tide, it is for a few minutes exposed. Now, during 

 the weeks of its submersion, how does this little creature 

 breathe ? Oxygen it must have or it will assuredly die. 

 Many of the beetles that shoot hither and thither in our 

 fresh-water ponds are clothed with a coat of thick but very 

 fine down in which air is entangled and carried beneath the 

 surface. But our little Aepus is not furnished with a coat 

 of down. If we examine it, however, with a magnifier we 

 shall discover that its whole body and limbs are studded with 

 long, slender hairs, and when it plunges under water, each 

 of these hairs carries with it a little globule of air from the 

 atmosphere, and these uniting, form a bubble of air surround- 

 ing the body of the insect and serving it for respiration. But, 

 subjected to the rolling of the tide, it would be liable to be 

 perpetually washed away from its dwelling-place were there 

 not an especial provision graciously made for its stability. 

 For this end the feet are furnished with claws of unusual 

 size, to cling firmly to the projections of the stones, and in 

 addition to these the last joint but one of the feet has a 

 long, curved spine meeting the claws, giving it an extra- 

 ordinary power in grasping, as well as aiding it in obtaining 

 its prey. In other respects, with regard to its eyes, its 

 antennae, its jaws, we shall find, if we carefully examine it, 

 that, minute as it is, being scarcely arr eighth of an inch long, 

 its wants have been accurately remembered and well 

 supplied." 



On Shore Collecting. 



Major Elwes, of Babbacombe, wrote last year in the 

 " Torquay Directory," a very interesting paper on shore 

 collecting. He remarked that — 



" There are three principal methods of obtaining marine 

 animals for scientific purposes. Those which live in deep 

 water can, of course, be obtained only by dredging. Those 

 which swim in the upper part of the sea, or near the surface, 



