594 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



On June 25 one was seen digging a hole in the sandy shore at the 

 southwest side of the lake and the next day another was seen 

 doing the same thing. Each of two examples caught June 27 con- 

 tained mature eggs. On July 16, 1899, two eggs were found on 

 the bottom in 2 feet of water. On July 18, 1900, at the south end 

 of the lake just east of Murray's, two large soft-shells were seen 

 hurrying into the water from the sandridge pushed up by the ice. 

 Upon examination several nests were found. The sand showed 

 evidence of recent disturbance, and there was no difficulty in find- 

 ing where the eggs were buried. There were probably 10 or 12 

 nests in a distance of a few yards along the ridge, though we did 

 not dig into all of them. Some fresh holes into which we dug 

 contained nothing; possibly the turtles had been trying different 

 places and found some unsuitable. Each hole was usually at the 

 edge of an abrupt ascent and was 2 to 4 inches in diameter at the 

 mouth and generally sloped back somewhat. In one or two cases 

 the eggs were uncovered but more often there was some sand over 

 them. The eggs were generally at a depth of 4 to 10 inches and 

 placed either on the bottom or on the sides of the hole which usually 

 widened out somewhat toward the bottom. Five nests examined 

 contained 4, 25, 3, 3, and 1 egg, respectively. The 25 eggs in the 

 second nest evidently belonged to two different sets. In the bot- 

 tom were 10 eggs that looked old. The yolk in each had settled 

 into the lower half, giving it a pink tinge, while the upper half was 

 opaque white. Above these, and partially separated from them 

 by sand, were 15 other eggs that were uniform pink throughout 

 and had evidently been deposited later. In and about this and 

 other nests were a good many broken eggs, evidently destroyed by 

 some animal, perhaps by the turtles themselves. The three eggs 

 in the third nest were fresh, but those in the fourth and fifth 

 were old and stale. Thirteen of these eggs and two others found 

 elsewhere were taken to the station and placed in sand-boxes ex- 

 posed to the sun, but none of them hatched. The eggs were quite 

 uniform in size, most of them measuring 1.09 x 1 inch. 



On July 21, a large female was caught on her nest by the side 

 of the railroad north of the ice-houses. Nineteen eggs were found 

 in the nest, and two fully developed eggs were taken from the ovi- 

 duct. These 21 eggs represented two different sizes, those taken 

 from the turtle and a portion of the others measuring .93 x .93 

 inch, the others 1.07 x 1.07 inches and all were decidedly more 

 nearly spherical than any of those obtained July 18. 



The female Soft-shell Turtle caught July 21 weighed just 7 

 pounds and gave the following measurements : 



