Rural School Leaflet 1237 



TURTLES 



A. H. Wright 



Editor's note. — Of the small animals in wild life few are so valuable 

 for schoolroom study as are the turtles. The snapping turtle and the 

 soft-shelled turtle are not safe to handle, but the smaller turtles that 

 the children find can easily be studied, and are so interesting in appearance 

 and habit that children never cease to find wonder in them. It is c(mi- 

 paratively easy to provide proper quarters for turtles in the schoolroom 

 in a terrarimii, or a cage where earth, plants, and a basin of water can 

 be arranged. A painted turtle once became the pet of a class of children 

 in a village school, and the children took turns in taking it home over- 

 night. Familiarity with this one sj^ecies led to a ciuest for others. The 

 teacher, through the inspiration that the turtle brought to the school, 

 was able to encourage the children to work harder on some of the essential 

 school subjects in order to have more time for the out-of-door work. 



N the whole, turtles are harmless, timid, cold-blooded 

 creatures, with bony shells made in two parts, the 

 upper part being called the carapace and the l<)wer 

 part being called the plastron. The more aquatic 

 species feed mainly on animal food, and have webbed 

 feet and flattened shells ; while the land forms have 

 highly arched shells and club-shaped feet, and feed largely, 

 if not solely, on vegetable matter. Usually the sexes can 

 be told apart. The male has the plastron concave instead of 

 convex or full, and the tail of the male is much thicker and 

 longer than that of the female. All tm-tles lay their eggs in sand, mud, 

 clay, or htunus, and cover them up after depositing them. The hole may 

 be dug with the fore feet or with the hind feet or with both. The eggs 

 are white, usually elliptical but sometimes spherical in shape, and have a 

 tough shell. Most turtles' eggs hatch in the fall, but sometimes they 

 winter over and hatch the following spring or early summer. 



The kinds of fresh-water turtles in New York State are twelve in nimiber, 

 and fall into four groups: (i) snapping turtles; (2) soft-shelled turtles,, 

 or leatherbacks; (3) mud turtles; (4) pond turtles. 



I. The snapping turtles are represented by one species, the common 

 snapper, which ranges from Canada to Ecuador. The shell reaches a 

 length of fourteen or fifteen inches, and the larger specimens weigh 

 from twenty to forty pounds. Its upper shell is a dark or dull brown 

 or olive, and its under shell is pale yellow. In the young there are three 

 keels, or ridges, on the back, but in the adult these are much reduced. 

 It differs from the very large alligator snapper (not found in New York 

 State) in having five instead of seven rows of plates on the upper shell. 

 The other distinguishing marks are a cross-shaped under shell, or plastron, 



