turtle laying her eggs. His description, which I 

 know to be reliable, follows : 



He states that the turtle had almost buried 

 herself in the sand ; thav the laying of each egg, at 

 intervals of ten to fifteer, seconds, was accompanied 

 by a convulsive movement; that she appeared not 

 to notice their presence while laying, although he 

 struck her. He received 25 or 30 of the eggs in 

 his hand as they were laid. After she had finished 

 laying she filled the hole, and, with her flippers, 

 smoothed the sand over, then showed a disposition 

 to defend her nest by remaining near it, but they 

 handled her roughly and she started for the sea, 

 more than 100 yards distant. The nest was opened 

 and the balance of the eggs secured. The entire 

 number laid was only 87, which is the smallest 

 number I have ever known to be laid by a logger- 

 head turtle. In my experience they usually lay 

 about 150. K . j. COLES, 



Danville, Va. 



PADDLEFISH FOUND IN MUD. 



During the construction of a dam across the 

 Noliehucky River near Greene ville, Tenn., an area 

 of the river bottom was exposed to view by means 

 of a cofferdam on November 9th, 11)13. 



All the water was pumped out, and during the 

 pumping process no fish, were observed in the water. 



The rock bed of the river was covered by two 

 feet of clean sand, and over this was three or four 

 inches of fine silt. In rhis silt were found half a 

 dozen living fish called by the natives Shovel-nosed 

 Catfish, identified at vhe American Museum of 

 Natural History as Paddlefish, Polt/odon spathula. 

 These fish ranged from 2 to 2£ feet in length, the 

 head and paddle being about half the length of 

 the fish. WAKEEN TRAVELL, 



New York, N. ¥. 



