FIELD BOOK OF PONDS AND STREAMS 



Habits, habitat. — During late spring and summer wood 

 turtles wander through pastures and woodland and over 

 upland fields far from the water. The food they gather along 

 the way is not very different from that of the ground-feeding 

 birds — blackberries, partridge berries, mushrooms — but in 

 the water they live on the regular turtle diet of small aquatic 

 animals. They hibernate in muddy stream bottoms. 



Breeding habits. — Wood turtles always mate in the water 

 and as readily in tanks or artificial pools as in their native 

 ponds. The usual season is through May and June but 

 Wright found a pair mating in a woodland stream on the fi.rst 

 of October. Ordinarily the wood turtle lays her eggs in June, 

 depositing about a dozen in a hollow of the ground, and after 

 covering them, leaves them to hatch as other turtles do. 



Size. — Length about 8 inches. 



Range. — From Canada southward through New Jersey and 

 Pennsylvania to Maryland and westward to Michigan and 

 Wisconsin. 



Soft-shelled Turtles — Triony chides 



Spiny soft-shelled turtle, Amyda spinifera. — There is no 

 mistaking the soft- shelled turtles. In place of the bony shells 

 of most turtles, they have a carapace and a plastron which 

 can be bent between the fingers like rubber. They are 

 thoroughly aquatic animals, swift swimmers with broadly 

 webbed feet (Fig. 313). 



The spiny soft-shelled turtle is flat bodied with a yellowish 

 brown carapace and pure white plastron and under parts. 

 The young turtles, 3 or 4 inches long, with polka-dots of black 

 on the carapace, are often sold in the pet shops and by 

 aquarium dealers. The soft-shell bencjs its long neck in an 

 S-shaped curve; its narrow head is prolonged into a leathery 

 snout with the nostrils at the tip. It usually floats just 

 below the surface of the water, with its nostrils thrust out 

 into the air. 



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