January. 1919] 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



135 



Note on turtles. 1 venture to point out some 

 innaccuracies that have crept into Mr. Thompson 

 Seton's comments on Turtles in the November num- 

 ber of The Ottawa Naturalist. 



The eggs of the Eastern Pamted Turtle can 

 scarcely be described as "nearly round"; they are 

 decidedly elongate in shape. The number to a 

 nest in this district is from eight to ten. I have no 

 exact data on the incubation period of the Painted 

 Turtle, but have reason to believe that in the 

 Ottawa Valley at least it is much longer than two 

 weeks. In the statement Mr. Thompson Seton 

 quotes from Agassiz: "The Painted Turtle has an 

 almost identical period of incubation with the Snap- 

 ping Turtle, namely, from the 11th to the 25th 

 June", the word "incubation" is evidently a mistake 

 for "oviposition". Both turtles lay about the middle 

 of June, but the young of the Snapping Turtle cer- 

 tainly do not emerge from the shell until September 

 or October; and even then, as far as my experience 

 goes, they remain buried in the sand until the follow- 

 ing spring. 



Again, the egg of the Snapping Turtle is not 

 "less round" than that of the Painted Turtle, for 

 it is perfectly spherical. And the number of eggs 

 to a nest may often be as many as fifty. Five nests 

 of which I have record contained respectively 39, 

 45, 49, 50 and 51 eggs. Half a dozen other nests 

 not so carefully counted contained manifestly sim- 

 ilar numbers. I have never seen a nest with as few 

 as two dozen eggs in it. 



C. Macnamara, Arnprior, Ont. 



Additional notes on Manitoba Turtles, 

 Snakes and Batrachians. Mr. Thompson Seton 

 has provided us with a very useful contribution in 

 the November number of The Ottawa NATUR- 

 ALIST which every Manitoban interested in wild life 

 will appreciate. A residence of more than thirty 

 years in the province enables me to add a few facts 

 which are presented below. 



The Western Hog-nosed Snake, Heletodon 

 nasicus B. and G. It is rather surprising that this 

 interesting snake has not been recorded. It was 

 taken by my father, Percy Criddle, in about 1884, 

 and has since been observed on many occasions at 

 Aweme and surrounding places. A very fine ex- 

 ample was presented to me, as a rare insect, in a net, 

 some years ago by that friend of every young 

 naturalist, the late Dr. James Fletcher, who in com- 

 pany with Mr. J. B. Wallis captured it in the sand 

 hills near Onah. This snake's habit of shammmg 

 death is well known. Among those unacquainted 

 with its harmlessness it is credited with being a 

 "puff adder" giving forth a deadly vapour from its 



mouth, this being supposedly demonstrated by the 

 habit the snake has of flattening itself out while 

 hissing. There are probably few reptiles that can 

 show a bolder face and yet are so little able to put 

 their threats into practice. 



The Garter Snake is one of those that protects 

 its young by taking them into its mouth. Naturalists 

 used to be sceptical as to this acclaimed habit, which 

 is a fact nevertheless. The practice has been 

 witnessed more than once by us in Manitoba. 



In addition to the Hog-nosed Snake we have at 

 least one Swift, Sceloparus sp? which inhabits wet or 

 low lands. 



The Mud-Puppy, Necturus maculosus, occurs in 

 all the rivers of southern Manitoba, being probably 

 much commoner than is generally supposed, as the 

 examples taken are usually secured on a fish-hook. 



The distribution of the Snapping Turtle, C. 

 serpentina, is also of considerable extent along rivers 

 and I have seen examples as far west as eastern 

 Saskatchewan in the Souris river. 



On July 10, 1918, I came across a large example 

 of the Painted Turtle, C. margmala bcllii, which 

 had crawled over a wide extent of sand in search of 

 a "nesting" site. It was at rest on some ground 

 juniper, /. prociinibens, when secured but no indica- 

 tions of a "nest" were visible. The turtle was fully 

 a mile away from the nearest water, the Rice lake, 

 Onah, and had been obliged to climb various steep 

 hills in her journey towards the sand. 



Norman Criddle. 



Railways in the Ottawa valley. Respect- 

 ing Mr. Keele's articles on the "Location of Towns 

 and Villages in the Ottawa Valley", printed in The 

 Ottawa Naturalist, November, 1918, Mr. James 

 White, of the Commission of Conservation, points 

 out that: The first railway line into the Ottawa 

 valley was the Prescott and Ottawa,, or, to use the 

 original name, the Prescott and Bytown railway. 

 This line was opened for traffic December, 1854. 

 The Brockville and Ottawa, later, the Canada Cen- 

 tral, was opened from Brockville to Almonte in 

 August, 1859, and the branch from Smith's Falls 

 to Perth was completed in February of the same 

 year. The extension from Almonte to Sand Point 

 was completed prior to 1867. 



Later, a line was constructed from Carleton 

 Place eastward to Ottawa, and the line to Almonte 

 was extended northward to Pembroke via Paken- 

 ham, Arnprior and Renfrew. 



The Canadian Pacific purchased the Canada 

 Central in 1881, and included the portion of this 

 line from Ottawa to Pembroke in its transconti- 

 nental line, thereafter operating the portion between 

 Carleton Place and Brockville as the Brockville 

 branch. 



