68 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
ging or scraping motions much as a person would in trying to 
dig a hole in the ground with his finger nails. She then lifted 
the dirt out and pushed it as far back from the hole as she could, 
at the same time shifted her body so that the cloaca was di- 
rectly over the pit and softened the hard clay with water from 
her bladders. The water was squirted into the pit with con- 
siderable force. Then the body was moved further so that the 
other foot could be thrust into the hole and she continued to dig 
as before. This was kept up, first with one foot, then softening 
the dirt, then with the other foot, for some time. This continu- 
ous wetting of the dirt soon made it of about the same consist- 
eney as thick cream, at which time she discontinued wetting it. 
As the dirt began to get dryer she commenced to enlarge the 
diameter of the hole at the bottom so as to make the nest flask- 
shaped, the neck being slightly larger than the leg and the spher- 
ical body as large as the reach of the leg would permit. In 
digging the body of the nest the turtle would scrape the sides 
with her claws three or four times, then press the dirt against 
the pad of her foot with her claws and earry it out by the hand- 
ful. It was deposited near the edge of the opening and then 
pushed out so that the dryer dirt was left near the opening 
while the soft mud was pushed to the periphery. It took about 
one hour and thirty minutes for this turtle to complete the dig- 
ging of her nest from the time she began. 
At 9:47 the turtle began to deposit her eggs. First she in- 
serted her right hind foot into the nest, moved over so that the 
cloaca was directly over the opening, and then removed her leg 
from the nest. The egg was deposited so that it rested slightly 
on. the edge of the opening, and gently slipped into the nest. 
Immediately the turtle inserted her right foot again and ap- 
parently placed the egg to one side of the nest. In about an- 
other minute a second egg was deposited and placed in the same 
manner as the first. It took about one-half second for the egg 
to pass out of the body, and seemed to involve no undue effort 
on the part of the turtle. The third egg appeared in about 
thirty seconds, and thirty seconds later, the fourth. The fifth 
egg did not appear until a minute and a half later, although two 
unsuccessful efforts were made at the regular intervals of half a 
minute. The sixth egg appeared on schedule time in thirty 
