1G9 



It is unfortunate that some of our predecessors have been guessing 

 at the food of tliis and some other species of turtles, and the com- 

 paratively recent writers have accepted without question, and 

 quoted without quotation marks, the statements made by previous 

 writers on this subject. 



Species 17. Emydoidea blandingi (Holbr.). Hlanding's Turtle. 



Blanding's Turtle is so named in honor of an early writer on 

 herpetology. It is variously known as Hlanding's Tortoise, liland- 

 ing's Terrapin, Blanding's Cistuda and the Semi-Box Turtle. The 

 last term refers to the fact that it can partially close its shell 

 although not wholly. 



In Blanding's Turtle the carapace is elongated and globular, 

 margin flaring. Plastron with transversa hinge and cartilaginous 

 union between carapace and plastron. Feet fully webbed. Black, 

 usually with numerous yellow dots. Plastron yellowish with black 

 blotches; head with yellow spots. Young nearly circular, black. 

 Chin and throat are bright, immaculate yellow. Rear lobe of plas- 

 tron bluntly notched. The head is cylindrical, upi^er mandible is 

 sharply notched, the neck is very long. Length eight inches. 



This turtle is found from New York to Wisconsin, being most 

 abundant in Indiana. Nash reports its occurrence in Ontario and 

 Ditmars says it is to be found in the Allegheny region, the North- 

 eastern part of Pennsylvania and New York into Massachussetts, 

 Rhode Island and New Hampshire. It occurs chiefly from Penn- 

 sylvania westward and on the shores of the Great Lakes in Canada. 

 It is not common even in that region.- It is a land animal, living in 

 damp fields near water. We have not been so fortunate as to have a 

 Pennsylvania specimen of this species. 



Agassiz reports that it lays from seven to nine eggs together each 

 year and the eggs are oval, measuring one and three-eights by almost 

 an inch in size. Hay, page 579, calls attention to the fact that, 

 ^'according to Agassiz's figures, there are no yellow nor orange dots 

 on the shell of the very young, thus being in contrast with the young 

 of the Speckled Turtle. This makes it not difficult to distinguish 

 between the two species. Holbrook who originally described the 

 species says, ''The type was a female from which we took 60 eggs of 

 different stages of development" (page 42). It is to be seen that 

 these sixty eggs would not be laid all at one time but would be 

 carried and laid as Agassiz has rei>ortcd, a few during each year. 

 It is known that turtles carry their eggs while they are developing, 

 during a period of severa! years. 



There is but little literature concerning tliis rare turtle. Hay says 

 that the food is probably animal matter and Ditmars says it lives 



