FRESH-WATER TURTLES: A SOURCE OF MEAT SUPPLY. 



By H. Walton Clabk, Sdentiftc Assistant, aud John B. Southall, SJiell 

 Expert, Fisheries Biological Station, Fairport, lotva. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Among the aquatic food resources of the United States to which 

 but little attention has as yet been given are the several species of 

 edible turtles and terrapins of the rivers and lakes. One species 

 of turtle, the famous and much-sought-after diamond-back terra- 

 pin, has indeed long been utilized to the fullest extent consistent 

 with the preservation of the species ; and in recent years its propaga- 

 tion on privately controlled farms has been inaugurated. The green 

 turtle of the sea has also for a long time been so generally esteemed 

 and extensively fished as to have been brought into actual danger 

 of extinction. It is worthy of note that, while these two species 

 have been regarded as delicacies of a high order, their relatives of 

 the interior waters have been comparatively little utilized, at least 

 under their proper names. It seems quite probable, however, that 

 certain species of fresh-water terrapin have been rather widely used 

 as an illegitimate substitute for the diamond-back terrapin. Within 

 the last year or two a more general interest in the subject of the use 

 of fresh-water turtles as food appears to have developed, and the 

 Bureau has received many inquiries for information in regard to 

 methods of capture of turtles and the preparation of their meat for 

 the table. It is the aim of the present paper to supply ansAvers to 

 these inquiries, so far as the information is at present available. 

 The data herein presented have been secured by the authors through 

 correspondence with dealers in turtles and b}^ personal visits to many 

 markets in the larger and smaller cities of the Middle West and to 

 various points of commercial fishery, principally on the Mississippi 

 and Illinois Rivers. 



THE SNAPPING TURTLE. 

 DISTRIBUTION AND HABITS. 



Commercially speaking, by far the most important species of the 

 Mississippi Basin is the snapping turtle, Chelf/djri serpentina (Linn- 

 aeus) (Pis. I and II), known also in diiferent localities and under 

 different conditions as the snapper, mud turtle, and mossback. Its 

 position in the market and in the consciousness of the people, the 

 methods of its capture, and the like, are so closely bound up with 

 its natural history that, in order to properly estimate its economic 

 status, it is necessary to give in some detail the main facts regarding 

 its habitat and habits. 



