128 



are of such nature that they can not be boiled hard, and they are 

 consequently almost always cooked by breaking and frying them. 



When disturbed the Snapping Turtle makes a sharp hissing noise 

 by suddenly expelling its breath and partially drawing its neck and 

 head into the shell. There is in some places a false idea to the effect 

 that the breath thus expelled from turtles, as well as from serpents, 

 is poisonous. 



About the middle of June the female Snapping Turtle goes to a 

 suitable place to lay her eggs, which is generally damp, warm, sandy 

 earth, and may be some distance from the water. She scoops out a 

 hole with her claws and by turning around, the earth falls over her 

 and conceals her body and the eggs are all laid in one nest. After 

 she is through laying she crawls out of the hole in such a way that 

 as the body is elevated the earth falls back on the eggs and covers 

 them. They are perfectly round, white and hard and are sought for 

 food by man and the lower animals. From twenty to one hundred 

 may be laid in one nest, according to the size of the parent. A cor- 

 respondent in the American Naturalist, for July, 1895, page 676, 

 gives the following description of a turtle's nest: 



•*0n June 16, 1894, I saw a snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina, 

 in the course of two hours, dig a hole and in it lay twenty-two 6ggs. 

 The hole was dug in gravel and was small at the top, but when an 

 inch below the surface of the ground, it widened, and when finished 

 was three inches in diameter and about four inches deep. The dig- 

 ging was done entirely by the hind feet used alternately. 



"The eggs were crowded in place by the hind feet, as fast as they 

 were laid. Then the hole was filled even with the rest of the ground. 

 The nearest water was a small stream about thirty feet distant. 

 —A." 



Our laboratory studies of the food of the Common Snapping 

 Turtle have given interesting results, as follows: 



Food Chart of Snapping Turtle (C. serpentina). 

 (Number with food, 19). 



Vegetation, 



Algse (low water plants), 



vSeeds, undetermined, 



Leaves, undetermined, , 



Apple seeds, 



Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus fcetida) leaves, . . 

 Grass, 



