NEST DIGGING AND EGG LAYING HABITS 
OF BELL’S TURTLE 
CRYSEMYS MARGINATA BELLIT (GRAY) 
By Frank A. STROMSTEN 
Department of Zoology, University of Iowa 
During the summer of 1921 some forty or fifty Bell’s painted 
turtles dug their nests on the side of a small hill just north of 
the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory. This afforded an excellent op- 
portunity for the study of the nest-digging and egg-laying hab- 
its of this species which is so abundant around the Okoboji 
lakes. When the turtle is digging her nest or depositing her 
eggs she is not easily frightened, so that it is possible to get very 
close to the animal and with a flash light held within an inch 
or so of the body every movement may be easily studied. On 
several occasions a number of the students at the Laboratory 
were able to watch the entire process from the time the turtle 
landed on the shore until she returned to the water again. The 
following description taken from my field notes of June 30, 1921, 
on nest 40 is typical. 
A painted turtle measuring about six inches in length ap- 
peared at the water’s edge at about 8:00 P. M., about sixty feet 
from where the writer was waiting. She followed an old cow- 
path up the rather steep slope of the hill for a distance of about 
thirty feet and then turned at right angles to the path and came 
directly towards me. After she had traveled for perhaps fif- 
teen feet she stopped and dug into the hard dry elay, first with 
the right hind foot and then with the left, making the dust fly 
for a considerable distance. It was only twice, once for the 
right and then for the left foot, that I could see the dust fly 
although the animal still continued to dig. She began digging 
her nest at 8:17 Pp. M. I gradually approached to within five 
or six feet of the turtle. This disturbed her slightly, but she 
soon resumed her operations. At first she inserted one foot 
into the depression she had started and made four or five dig- 
Contributions from the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, No. 55 
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