1238 



Rural School Leaflet 



Young, si!<ipl?i)ig turtle, natural 

 size. Note cross-shaped plastron 



a long tail with a crestlike series of plates along the back, a large, power- 

 ful head, and limbs little protected by the under shell. 



The snapping turtle appears from hiber- 

 nation about the last of March, or during 

 the first weeks of April. In open winters it 

 may emerge from the mud occasionally for 

 short periods. It prefers mudd}% quiet 

 ponds and streams, although it is discovered, 

 also, along the edges of clear streams and 

 lakes. It crawls along the bottom or swims 

 slowly with its head above the surface of 

 the water. It is protectively colored, looks 

 much like its environment, and usually has considerable mud on its 

 back with algsc actually growing on it. Like the musk turtle, it pos- 

 sesses a disagreeable odor. 



When alarmed, it rests, partially covered in the mud, where it also 

 lies in wait for fish, tadpoles, frogs, or even young waterfowl. It spoils 

 more than one boy's fishing for bullheads or suckers, and is hard to land. 

 This deliberate moving reptile is very courageous and pugnacious. Like 

 a snake or soft-shelled turtle, it strikes at its enemies or prey, and its 

 bite is very much to be avoided. In fact so tenacious is its hold that 

 it may maintain it even if the head be severed from the body. Many 

 persons esteem as a luxury the so-called " nine kinds of meat " in the 

 snapping turtle. 



In June and July the female turtle seeks a sandy bank near the water, 

 and scoops out a funnel-like hole one foot wide at the bottom, in which 

 she lays from thirty to seventy round, tough eggs. These are an inch, 

 or slightly more, in diameter and are covered over with from six to twelve 

 inches of sand. About the last of August or early September, the eggs 

 hatch, and the young hasten to the water. 



During the summer the adults rarely appear on land except for breed- 

 ing purposes, or, possibly, for food, 

 or in traveling from one pond to 

 another. In late October or early 

 November, these sullen, sluggish, and 

 vicious animals go into the mud of 

 ponds, streams, and lakes, to remain 

 over winter. 



2. The soft-shelled, or leatherback, 

 turtles are very flat and broad. 

 The carapace and the plastron are leathery, with thin margins, and no 

 homy external scales. The snout is long and leathery, and the nostrils 

 are on its tip. 



Young snapping turtle, natural size. Adult 

 fourteen times larger 



