COPEIA 57 



March 25, 1917, was one of the first warm, bright 

 days of spring in this vicinity. At 10:30 a. m., while 

 working along the border of one of the Potomac 

 marshes two miles below Alexandria, Va., we picked 

 up a specimen of Kinostemon pennsylvanicum 

 (Bosc) in a small thicket of Smilax. Casual exam- 

 ination showed that the animal had but recently come 

 out of its place of hibernation. Its carapace and 

 limbs were encrusted with freshly dried earth, and 

 the turtle seemed more sluggish than usual in its re- 

 actions while being handled. This excited our curi- 

 osity, and a short search revealed an opening beneath 

 some dead leaves, only eight or ten inches from the 

 spot where the turtle was discovered. After clearing 

 away the thorny entangling stems of green-briar, we 

 were able to make a careful examination of the hole, 

 and found that it had unquestionably been used as a 

 place of hibernation. 



The location chosen was about 50 yards distant 

 from the marsh, in a shallow, furrowlike depression 

 leading down through a gently sloping field. Broom- 

 sedge covered most of the field, and a varied growth 

 of shrubs and low trees was scattered through it. The 

 excavation was near the center of a low but dense 

 growth of Smilacc four or five feet in width, so that 

 it was protected on all sides from the approach of 

 predatory animals. The soil here was a sandy 

 loam, through which the tough roots of green-briar 

 grew in interlacing lines. The earth was friable and 

 easily thrust aside save where the root growths pre- 

 vented. The opening through which the turtle had 

 emerged was roughly elliptical in outline. It was 

 broad enough to admit the turtle easily with its legs 

 extended. The burrow descended at an angle of 

 about 45 degrees, and was approximately 9 T ^ inches 

 deep. The pitch of descent decreased toward the 

 lower end, and at the bottom the excavation was 

 slightly widened, as if the turtle might have rested 

 with its body at right angles to the burrow. The 



