56 Proceeding* of the Biological Society of Washington. 



and especially much heavier than the corresponding shorter and more 

 slender claws of the female. The plastra are different. In addition to 

 concave male and convex female plastral characters, we find that there 

 is another distinction. The rear edge of the plastron of the female may 

 almost reach the corresponding edge of the carapace. For example, in 

 two specimens of equal length (7 inches) the rear edge of the plastron of 

 the female is only .5 cm. from the corresponding part of the carapace, but 

 in the male 2 cm. separate the two edges. 



Many years ago the author found a mated pair of painted turtles in 

 mid-August but this late mating just preceding entrance into hibernation 

 seems quite unusual. Inasmuch as many male turtles in courtship en- 

 deavor to get in front of the females or stick their heads toward the 

 withdrawn head of the females it may be that in their attempt to grasp 

 the front edge of the carapace with their long claws the males may acci- 

 dentally flay the females. That deliberate flagellation occurs and that 

 the claws are longer for such a function seems rather far fetched. 



The female of this October 1 pair was lost by a friend but the male was 

 retained for a month. About October 20 it strove to dig into the gravel 

 of our cold cellar, the windows of which were open. Later we brought 

 it to the laboratory and for a week it sought to find a dark corner for 

 hibernation. It annoyed the students in its walking around so that it 

 was put into a big hamper waste basket over 2.5 feet high. This basket 

 had bulging sides and a smaller diameter at the top. From the bottom 

 of this basket it would climb up on the inside and surmount the rim 

 where it balanced awhile. Finally it would tumble to the floor. It re- 

 peated this climbing act eight different times and sometimes the students 

 would put the basket beside them but frequently the turtle was so quiet 

 that it would be at the parapet balancing before the student would be 

 aware of its climbing. 



Clemmys guttata (Schneider). 



This best known N. A. form of this genus we do not propose to discuss 

 at length except to present a few of our records of its occurrence. Our 

 early dates of first appearance in the spring are April 3, 1903, at Hilton, 

 N. Y. (near Rochester), April 5, 1909, at Auburn, N. Y., and April 7, 

 1909, at Hamburg, N. Y. (near Buffalo). It does not occur at Ithaca, 

 N. Y., nor in the southern tier of western New York counties so far as 

 can be determined. In the Upper Austral stretch from Oswego to Buffalo 

 it occurs regularly. At Fort Erie, Ontario, we secured it in the last of 

 June, 1914, in some drainage ditches which were put through a sphag- 

 neous area behind Crystal Beach. At Hamburg, New York, we took it 

 in the same swampy woods in which Hemidactylium scutatum, Ambys- 

 toma jeffersonianum and Pseudacris feriarum lived. Near Rochester, 

 as about Buffalo, it is not the turtle of our streams nor of the cat-tail 

 swamps. Here the painted turtle is the common form. At Hilton, 



