WATER RIGHTS. See RIVERS ; RIPARIAN RIGHTS.
a bug of the fam ily Nepide, whose species inhabit ponds and take their popular name from the scorpion like form of the fore-legs, with which they seize their prey. The remaining two pairs are slender and locomotory. and the abdomen terminates in a long. slender breathing tube. Some of the species carry eggs in a layer on the under side of the abdomen. Belostoina includes the largest species with flattened bodies and four-jointed antennae; . Nepa is much flattened and oval and the antenrse are three-jointed and lamellate; while Remora includes species of linear form. The lame and nymphs of the water-scorpions resemble the imagoes in general aspect, but lack the wines of the latter. In all stages they are sluggish in movements and secure their prey hv hiding and stealth. These insects are very interesting in habits and structure. See Finn
w *TER linseeds.
a harmless colubrine American snake (A'atrix fasciata), closely allied t., the garter-snakes (q.v.), but of aquatic hab its, swimming and diving with great case and skill and spending its life largely in streams, ponds and marshes. It lives largely upon fish, eather alive or dead, frogs, tadpoles, newts and aquatic insects and other small creatures. It is mottled in variable dull tints and is lively and pugnacious. Its eggs are laid in holes in stream banks and similar places. The common grass-snake (q.v.) of Europe, the only British serpent except the viper, is a near relative. The wart-snake of Fist India (Acrocordus javanicus) and the sea snake, a venomous fish-eating hydrophoid of the Indian Ocean, also bear the name of sea snake.