TURTLES AND TORTOISES 9 



keels, their height varying according to age. Old speci- 

 mens are comparatively smooth, while the young are so 

 rough as to look quite grotesque. On the under surface, 

 the tail is covered with broad plates; this appendage is 

 almost as long as the carapace. Above, the color is dull 

 brown; the plastron is dingy yellow. Rossignon's 

 Snapping Turtle, C. rossignonii, of Mexico and Gua- 

 temala, differs from its North American ally in having 

 a much broader plastral bridge. 



The Common Snapping Turtle is abundant over an 

 extensive area. It is found in southern Canada and 

 throughout the United States generally east of the 

 Rockies, thence southward, through Mexico, to Ecuador. 

 It is a bold and aggressive animal, not hesitating to 

 attack water fowl, which it drags beneath the surface 

 to drown, when it tears up the prey by means of the 

 combined efforts of strong mandibles and forefeet — 

 often assisted by several members of its kind that are 

 continually roaming over the river-bottom in search of 

 plunder. Occasionally it takes the bait of a fisherman, 

 when its prodigious struggles to free itself from the 

 hook lead the excited sportsman to believe that he has 

 made a finny capture beyond all power of imagination. 

 Prompted by a continually hungry stomach this reptilian 

 terror resorts to various devices in the capture of prey. 

 Often it half imbeds itself in the mud, in a lane traversed 

 by schools of fishes, and here it darts at the ill-fated 

 victims as they approach without suspicion an object that 

 looks exactly like a muddy rock, streaked here and there 

 with moss ; another device is to prowl along the edge of 

 a pond or stream in search of frogs, which, in turn are 

 squatting, snout toward the bank, on the watch for 

 insect prey. 



During June or in July, the female Snapping Turtle 



s 



