TURTLES AND SNAKES 



with only their nostrils out of it. Although they appear 

 sluggish and awkward, they can thrust forth their heads and 

 snap their strong hooked jaws with lightning rapidity. They 

 are quick enough to capture swift moving animals — fish, 

 frogs and flies — but they will also devour anything available 

 — insects, snails, crayfishes, mice, small birds, and occasionally 

 dead animals. They very commonly catch ducklings by the 

 legs when they are swimming on meadow ponds, and they 

 sometimes attack full sized ducks. When frightened or 

 maltreated, most turtles retreat into their shells, but snappers 

 protect themselves by snapping and biting, doing so at the 

 slightest excuse. When snappers are caught, they should be 

 carried by the tail, head downward, so that they cannot spring 

 or stretch their necks far enough to bite. 



Breeding habits.— The female snapper takes her spiing 

 rambles on land, in search of a nesting place. She selects 

 soft, damp earth, scoops a hole in it, digging with her hind 

 legs till her body is nearly hidden, then she lays twenty ot 

 more round hard-shelled eggs about an inch in diameter. A 

 vivid story of the egg-laying of the snapping-turtle is told 

 by Dallas Lore Sharp in the chapter "Turtle Eggs for Agassiz" 

 in his volume called "The Face of the Fields. " The enemies 

 of the snapper are numbered chiefly among the animals which 

 eat its eggs — mink, weasels, and skunks. 



Size. — Length of fullgrown turtle, 2 feet or more; very large 

 ones are nearly 3 feet long and weigh about fifty pounds. 



Range. — Common, United States east of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. 



Box Turtles — Kinosternidce 



Musk turtle, stinkpot, Stemotherus odoratus. — Like the 

 snapper the musk turtle lives in the water, coming on land 

 only to lay its eggs. It is one of our smallest turtles, and the 

 whole animal is only 4 or 5 inches long. Its carapace is 

 highly arched, smooth, brown; the plastron is yellowish, 



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