TURTLES AND SNAKES 



painted turtle, have soft shelled eggs ; others, like the snapper, 

 have hard shelled ones. They are hidden in soil or rotting 

 wood and leaves, and usually take a long time to incubate, 

 about eighty days for those of the spotted turtle. 



Life history. — Newly hatched frogs are fishlike and young 

 flies look like worms, but just-hatched turtles are small edi- 

 tions of their parents. They have lungs and breathe air; 

 they walk on the same feet which they use in their old age, 

 going through no marked transformation as they grow up. 

 Although fresh water turtles, like land and marine ones, live 

 to a considerable age, their bony shells are never shed, but 

 each plate or shield grows larger and thicker until it reaches 

 adult size. The painted turtle, Chrysemys picta, sheds the 

 outer horny transparent layer of its shell periodically and for 

 some time afterwards its colors appear very bright. If a good 

 sized piece of a turtle's shell is broken or crushed, the broken 

 part will slough off, new shell will grow, and after several 

 months only a scar will mark the injury. 



Snapping Turtles — Chelydridce 



Snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina. — The snapper is a 

 water turtle but there are more than equal chances that it 

 will be found on land, for it explores the streamsides and ad- 

 joining fields in May and June when humanity is also out 

 walking. It is the largest of our fresh water turtles, yet on 

 land it is a swift walker, and can lunge and jump completely 

 off the ground. Snapping turtles may weigh 40 pounds or 

 more but they commonly weigh 25 or 30 pounds and are over 

 2 feet long. Their shells are comparatively small, allowing 

 free action of the legs and the long neck and head, the latter 

 so large that it can be pulled only part way into the shell 

 (Fig. 310). On the upper side of the tail there is a row of 

 low tubercles forming a crest like the one on an alligator's 

 tail; in very young snappers there are three such elevations 



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