198 The Ottawa Naturalist. [December 



NOTE ON THE OVIPOSITION OF THE MUD TURTLE. 



By Mailes Cowley, Bristol, Que. 



In the month of October, 1896, my hired man was ploug-hing- 

 near the Ottawa River in the Township of Clarendon, and about 

 nine feet above the level of the water he ploughed up a mud 

 turtle's nest, which contained about fifty eggs. They were about 

 eight inches under ground and covered with a solid grass sod, 

 there being no entrance to the nest except from the top, where 

 there was a hole about one inch and a quarter in diameter. The 

 field in which the nest was situated had not been cultivated for 

 more than forty-five years The nest was shaped like an inverted 

 soup-tureen, the hole being in the top of the dome, and how the 

 young turtles got out when hatched is not easy to guess. These 

 eggs were seen in the tall and not a thing was found in the shells 

 when the snow was going off in the month of April, the follow- 

 ing spring. Were they hatched by the early spring sun, or did 

 some animal eat them ? 



One of my neighbors, Mr. John Telfer, a reliable man, who 

 has done much hunting and fishing, says that some j'ears ago he 

 came across a good sized turtle about six acres from the Ottawa 

 River at Clarendon Front, in the county of Pontiac, and as its 

 movements were peculiar he decided to watch it. He climbed a 

 leaning tree and from his position a few feet above the ground he 

 saw the turtle lift up her hinder part and drop an egg. Then with 

 one of her hind legs she took the egg and reaching far down in 

 the hole placed it in the nest. After about a minute the same pro- 

 cess was again gone through with, and so on until she had laid 

 about a dozen eggs. Mr. Telfer says that he is satisfied that a 

 turtle lays all its eggs at one time, not at intervals like a hen. He 

 affirms that they hollow out the nest first and then cover it over, 

 leaving a small hole in the top large enough to allow a hind leg 

 to enter it with an egg. Mr. Telfer also expressed his wonder at 

 the length to which a turtle could stretch her leg and the care she 

 displays in placing the eggs in the nest. Though he never saw a 

 young turtle come out of a nest his belief is that the mother 

 watches the nest, and when the young are hatched, either pulls the 



