TURTLES AND SNAKES 



is wholly replaced by the closely related western painted 

 turtle, Chrysemys marginata. 



Spotted turtle, Clemmys guttata. — Spotted turtles are the 

 yellow polka-dotted turtles which sun themselves in com- 

 panies on floating logs or islands of reeds and grasses. They 

 climb up onto a log, crowding and piling one upon another, 

 but the least alarm sends them all tumbling back into the 

 water together. Such basking companies are often made up of 

 both painted and spotted turtles. The spotted turtle has a 

 smooth, low carapace, black scattered over with yellow or 

 orange spots (PI. XXIII); the middle of its plastron is dull 

 yellow and on the underside the edges of the carapace are 

 marked with yellow. The male has a tail nearly twice as 

 long as that of the female. 



Hahits, habitat. — It seems to take all its food under water, 

 yet it travels considerable distances overland. Spotted 

 turtles are very good natured, and they thrive in captivity 

 on a diet of chopped raw meat. This is the species which 

 Yerkes used for studies of habit-formation and found that it 

 does remarkably little aimless wandering, possessing keen 

 senses of smell and sight and appearing to learn from experi- 

 ence. It eats plant stems and leaves as well as insects and 

 crustaceans. 



Breeding hahits. — It lays its elliptical eggs in the same 

 season as the painted turtle, in late afternoon or evening, from 

 the middle to the last of June. They are a long time incubat- 

 ing; Babcock buried some of them in sand on June i6 and 

 they did not hatch until September 6. At that time the 

 young turtle had a carapace about one inch long. 



Size. — The carapace of the male is about 5 inches long, that 

 of the female an inch shorter. 



Range. — Through the eastern states from Maine to Florida 

 and westward to Indiana and Michigan. 



Wood turtle, sculptured turtle, Clemmys insculpta. — Wood 

 turtles are the familiar "carved" or "sculptured" turtles 



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