1908] Snapping Turtle. 131 



Mr. Gibson showed specimens of inflated larvae of some 

 noctuids, which had been collected at Ottawa, or reared from 

 eggs secured from captive female moths. The handsome 

 larvae of Mamestra assimilis, Peridroma astricta and Cucullia 

 intermedia were included, and attention was drawn to the 

 remarkable change which takes place in the appearance of the 

 latter larva after it passes its last moult. An interesting orange 

 colour variety of the larva of Cimbex americana, which had been 

 found on V)asswood, was also exhibited. 



A. G. 



NOTE ON A YOUNG SPECIMEN OF THE SNAPPING 

 TURTLE (CHELYDRA SERPENTINA). 



A young Snapping Turtle has been received through the 

 kindness of Mr. Capel St. George, of Tramore, Ont., and as it 

 presents certain features which become modified or obscured 

 during growth, the following note may be of interest to the 

 readers of the Ottawa Naturalist. 



The length of the specimen from the snout to the tip of the 

 tail is about 4f inches when the creature is fully stretched; the 

 length of the carapace (or upper shell) 1 11-16 inches, the breadth 

 at the broadest part If inches, and the length of the plastron 

 (or under shell) 1 3-16 inches, the breadth 1-J- inches. The length 

 of the tail is about that of the carapace, whereas in the half- 

 grown and adult it is proportionallv shorter. The carapace is 

 verv rugose and ridged, features w^hich gradually become smoother 

 as age advances. The crests on the tail, which are so pronounced 

 in the adult, are rudimentary. The shell is feebly ossified. The 

 skin, as in the adult, is warty; the warts on the under parts of 

 the juvenile being whitish in colour. The under sides of the 

 marginal shields are white with dark dots, and there are white 

 spots at or near the borders of the plastron. 



The Common Snapping Turtle belongs to the family 

 Chelydridae of the order of the Chelonia or the Turtles; and it 

 may be pointed out that the comparatively small carapace, the 

 small and cruciform plastron, and the incompletely retractile 

 head, indicate the rather primative character of the family, which 

 contains only two other recorded species : the Snapping Turtle of 

 Mexico and Guatemala (C. rossignonii) and the Alligator Snapper 

 (Macrochelys temminckii) ; the latter being the largest of the 

 fresh water tortoises. 



The little turtle has been fed at intervals of a few days with 

 dead salmon-trout fry which it eats with avidity. 



Andrew Halkett. 



