THE REPTILES OF OHIO 139 



leave their shelters. Several times collectors wandered through dry woods 

 without seeing any reptiles, but during and after showers box turtles were much 

 in evidence in the same woods. During several spring and summer trips to 

 southern Ohio literally dozens of box turtles were seen on the roads during 

 and after heavy rains. Experiments conducted in captivity on hot days 

 showed that specimens almost always left their burrows when their enclosure 

 was sprinkled with a hose. 



Box turtles are deliberate in their movements. Their gait is slow and 

 steady but they are capable of traveling considerable distances in a day. When 

 thoroughly alarmed, however, occasional individuals will run off with a great 

 scurrying. Despite their clumsy appearance they are fair climbers and they 

 sometimes are found on hillsides so steep as to afford a very insecure footing 

 for the collector. 



When it is first approached in the field the usual procedure is for a speci- 

 men to emit a sharp hiss and to withdraw the head, tail and limbs into the 

 shell. If it is touched the appendages are still further withdrawn and the 

 movable lobes of the plastron are pressed firmly against the carapace. In 

 some specimens the closure is so perfect it is impossible to insert such a small 

 object as a broom straw between the shells. Very fat specimens are unable to 

 retire completely within their bony armor and when the head and forelimbs 

 are withdrawn the hind legs and tail protrude or vice versa. That this closing 

 of the shell serves as a protection is indicated by the fact that several were 

 found in which the shell, and particularly the flared portion at the edges of 

 the carapace had been gnawed, possibly by such animals as dogs or raccoons. 



Individuals were collected from April to October, inclusive, but there was 

 a seasonal peak of abundance in May and June. One, preserved in the collec- 

 tion at Sandusky High School, was taken on New Year's Day, 1905, on 

 Cedar Point in Erie County. Large numbers of specimens successfully hiber- 

 nated at the Toledo Zoological Park. The enclosure in which they were kept 

 was filled to a depth of a foot or more with leaves in the fall of the year. Into 

 this mass the turtles burrowed and after the leaves had settled it was often 

 possible to see the ends of the tunnels which they made in it. On warm days 

 in fall, even until the first of December, occasional turtles were to be seen 

 basking, but as the sun went down or the temperature dropped they retired 

 from sight. The leaves were always moist and in every case, except one, the 

 box turtles hibernated in or beneath them on the soil. The single exception 

 was a large adult female which wintered in the water at the edge of a pond in 

 precisely the same sort of situation selected by the more aquatic snappers, 

 spotted, painted and Blanding's turtles. In the spring none of the hibernating 

 box turtles came out until late March or early April. 



Box turtles are omnivorous. They were observed to eat earthworms, grubs, 

 crayfish, fish, frogs, salamanders, meat, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, blackberries, 

 blueberries, bananas, tomatoes, several species of fungi, etc., and carrion, such 

 as dead birds or amphibians. On one occasion two specimens were seen eat- 

 ing the contents of a duck egg which fell into their enclosure. Captives soon 



