HAUDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



33 



experiments indicate apparent life in the head, if not 

 actual, for from six to twenty hours, according to 

 the size of the animal; the older specimens living 

 longer than younger ones. 



When on land, the snapper seems to be quite at 

 home, although his muvements are very awkward. 

 But considering that it can travel " on foot " quite 

 expeditiously, the ir.aiiuer of walking is really less 

 awkward than it appears. " He moves along with 

 head and neck stretched out, moving them to and 

 fro, as he proceeds, as though inspecting the ground 

 as he goes. His walk is said to resemble that of 

 our alligator ; like them falling now and then on his 

 sternum to rest, and then proceeding." (Holbrook.) 



In New Jersey, the snappers leave the water 

 about the middle of May to lay their eggs. I have 

 found them from twenty to two hundred yards from 

 water, making quite deep holes in sand or loose 

 earth, and laying therein their whole complement 

 of eggs. When fairly free from the egg, they find 

 their. way to the water quite soon, I judge, as I 

 have found very small specimens paddling about in 

 shallow water, snapping at minute insects as vora- 

 ciously as their parents seize fish. According to 

 Prof. Agassiz, this snapping habit commences 

 wonderfully soon. In his " Contrib. Nat. Hist, 

 of U.S.," vol. i. p. 175, he says : " The Snapping 

 Turtle, for instance, exhibits .... its ferocious 

 habits even before it leaves the egg, before it 

 breathes through lungs, before its derm is ossified 

 to form a bony shield, &c. ; nay, it snaps with its 

 gaping jaws at anything brought near, though it 

 be still surrounded by its amnios and allantois, and 

 its yolk still exceeds in bulk its whole body." 

 And again : — " I have seen it snapping in the same 

 fierce manner as it does when full grown, at a time 

 it was a pale, almost colourless embryo, wrapped up 

 in its foetal envelopes .... three months before 

 hatching." 



Judging from the fact, that the younger they are, 

 the more incessantly they are pursuing and devour- 

 ing small animals of every kind, fish, shells, insects, 

 — everything, in fact, that comes in their way, — 

 judging from this, I believe the growth of the young 

 is very rapid until they attain a length of six or 

 seven inches. After this I have no means of ascer- 

 taining the rate of growth. It must be remembered, 

 however, that, like our black snake (Bascanion 

 constrictor), the maximum growth has never yet 

 been determined. The largest snapper I have met 

 with weighed nineteen pounds; they have been 

 captured weighing nearly or quite fifty. That they 

 are long-lived is well known, and probably growth 

 slowly continues throughout the whole period of 

 their existence. 



As already stated, the snapper is voracious 

 beyond description, but I believe not, as generally 

 supposed, strictly carnivorous. They seem fond at 

 times of the stems of water-lilies, and eat quite a 



large quantity at one time. I presume they devour 

 them as food, and not, as a cat eats grass, as a 

 medicine. 



In studying the movements and feeding habits 

 of a specimen confined in an aquarium, I noticed 

 that this turtle has quite a peculiar voice, but only 

 gives utterance to his peculiar cry at night. It is 

 best described as a bellow, faintly heard, as though 

 uttered a long distance off. After making innu- 

 merable attempts, in various ways, I finally suc- 

 ceeded in seeing the turtle when uttering this 

 peculiar cry. The animal stood up on all four feet, 

 stretched its neck out as far as possible, and, with 

 its head wholly out of water, gave utterance to the 

 cry or "call" with the mouth widely open. The 

 turtle then sauk to the bottom of the aquarium, and 

 did not repeat the cry that evening. This sound, I 

 suppose, is, in fact, a " call " note, under ordinary 

 circumstances, to be heard only during the breeding 

 season ; beiug uttered only by the males to attract 

 the other sex. I am quite positive, however, that 

 I have never heard the same sound in the haunts 

 of this turtle. 



As is common with turtles, the world over, this 

 species is far more active at night than during the 

 day, but is "sleepy" at no time of day or year. 

 Even after the creeks are tightly frozen up, and the 

 snapper is snugly fixed in his winter quarters in the 

 mud, he is then, even, quite wide awake if any 

 intruder appears, and will bite as savagely when 

 you draw him from the frozen mud in January, as 

 he seizes an unsuspecting duckling by the leg in 

 summer, to make a meal of in some quiet resting- 

 place at the bottom of the pond. 



Charles C. Abbott, M.l). 



Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.A. 



NOTES ON PLEOMORPHISM. 

 By P. Duffy, P.L.S., E.C.S. 



{Continued.) 



THE question— What is the purpose in nature 

 of this capacity of pleomorphism possessed by 

 certain fats ? is not one that lies directly in the line 

 of the present discussion; but looking to the almost 

 universal diffusion of such substances in living 

 bodies, it assumes such an interest as will, I think, 

 justify me in referring, however briefly, to one fact 

 that I have ascertained, and which very likely indi- 

 cates an important function of such glycerine fats 

 in the economy of living animals and plants. If 

 one of these fats be fused at the highest of its 

 three melting-points, it takes up a quantity of heat 

 that remains latent— if the fat be not agitated- 

 even when the temperature falls and the fat solidifies 

 below all three melting-points ; but if, in the process 

 of [cooling, the fat be agitated, it solidifies several 

 degrees above its lowest melting-point, and con- 



