THE OTTAWA NATURALIST 



Vol. XXXII. 



NOVEMBER, 1918. 



No. 5. 



A LIST OF THE TURTLES, SNAKES AND BATRACHIANS 



OF MANITOBA.* 



By Ernest Thompson Seton. 



THE PPAIRIE MUD TURTLE OR PAINTED TURTLE, 

 Chr})semys marginaia bellii (Gray). 



This is the common turtle of Manitoba. It is a 

 small inoffensive species, readily recognized by its 

 size (about AVz inches along the back 115 mm.), 

 the bright red spots on the edge of its shell and the 

 dark irregular blotch or cloud on the plastron, which 

 last most readily distinguishes it from its near rela- 

 tive, the Eastern Mud Turtle. 



I found it rather common in the Red river, near 

 Winnipeg, and about Carberry in the large ponds 

 and streams. It is also reported from many points 

 in the prairie region Boissevain, (A. S. Barton) ; 

 Riding Mountain, (C. C. Helliwell) ; Austin, (Dr. 

 Shaw). 



Evidently, it is of general distribution in the 

 south-west quarter of Manitoba, but is unknown at 

 Shoal Lake or anywhere on the east side of Lake 

 Manitoba. Richardson records it occurring at the 

 south end of Lake Winnipeg and gives "Asate" as 

 its Chippewa name. 



There is no available information on its breeding 

 habits, but the female of the kindred species picta 

 lays eggs during June, in a dry sunny bank, often 

 remote from water. The eggs are white, leathery 

 and nearly round; they measure about one inch (26 

 mm.) through, and number about half-a-dozen. All 

 the eggs of the season are laid at one time and 

 hidden in a single hole. This hole is three or four 

 inches deep, scooped out by the hind feel of the 

 mother; the eggs are left in several layers and 

 covered with earth and leaves, so carefully as to be 

 difficult of detection. The mother takes no further 

 interest in the nest. The young hatch out after two 



*The nomenclature is that of Stejneger and 

 Barbour's Check List of N. A. Batrach. and Reptiles, 

 1917. 



Acknowledgment is here made of kind assist- 

 ance given by Karl P. Schmidt of Am. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist., New York. 



weeks, crawl to the nearest swamp, and shift for 

 themselves. 



"The process of reproduction by laying is not 



commenced before the eleventh year 



enough has been seen to warrant the assumption that 

 from the eleventh to the fourteenth year is about the 

 age at which most, if not all our native fresh water 



turtles lay their eggs for the first time; 



not one of our turtles makes more than a single 

 nest [each year]. They deposit all the eggs at once. 

 The Painted Turtle has an almost identical period 

 of incubation with the Snapping Turtle, namely, 

 from the 11th to the 25th of June." [L. Agassiz, 

 on Painted Turtle, 1857]. 



To this, Professor H. A. Surface adds (Turtles 

 of Penna. 1908, p. 149): "The Painted Turtle is 

 known to lay only from five to seven eggs a year, 

 although more may be found within the body at 

 any time. These do not all come to maturity during 

 the same year." 



The eggs are much preyed upon by skunks, rac- 

 coons, gray squirrels, etc., which search them out 

 and devour them with keen relish. 



The natural food of the turtle is insects, worms 

 and fish, but it is known to add fruit and leaves to its 

 diet. 



In the autumn, it buries itself in the mud, at the 

 bottom of a pond, below the frost line, and remains 

 torpid till the following May. 



The first sharp frost at Cos Cob, Connecticut, 

 came about the beginning of December (?) one 

 year. There was no snow; the ice was very clear; 

 looking through it I saw on the bottom of the lake in 

 three feet of water 20 or 30 Painted Turtles slowly 

 crawling in one direction; that is, toward the inlet 

 of the lake. They were not apparently associated. 



The reappearance of the Mud Turtle is a sign of 

 spring at its flood; but the Scriptural line, alluding 

 to the "voice of the turtle in our land," refers not to 



