140 



HERPETOLOGY OF MICHIGAN. 



a group, they fight over it like so many puppies over a rag, pulling 

 and jerking to the best of their ability." "Their appetite is in- 

 satiable and indiscriminate. On one occasion I pnt a living rat 

 in an aqnarium containing several musk tortoises. Almost imme- 

 diately three of them seized it bv the feet and pulled it under, thus 

 drowning it. Before it had ceased to struggle they proceeded to 

 disembowl it and succeeded in making a fairly good skeleton of it 

 in a few hours" (p. 147). 



Surface (1908, 138) has tabulated the food found in the stomachs 

 of a number of specimens as follows: 



MoUusca 



Snails 



Insecta 



Orthoptera (Crickets, Grasshoppers) 



Grijllus penusi/lvanicus 



Lepidoptera, (Moths, etc.) 



Larvae 



Coleoptera, (Beetles) 



Undetermined fragments 



Carabidae — Undet., (Ground Beetles) 



When captured the musk turtles emit a strong odor (not especi- 

 ally disagreeable), open their jaws widely, and hiss, but they seldom 

 bite and then with little effect. 



Range: The species has been reported from: Michigan (Sager, 

 1839, 301; Miles, 1861, 232; Smith, 1879, 7), Eaton County (Clark, 

 1902, 193), Ann Arbor, Olivet, and Barry, Kalamazoo, Montcalm 

 and Van Buren Counties (Clark, 1905, 110 j, Cass Comity (Thomp- 

 son, 1911, 107). and Walnut Lake, Oakland County (Hankinson, 

 1908, 236). The writer has seen specimens from the following 

 localities : Washtenaw County, Walnut Lake, Oakland County, Cass 

 County, and Miss Crystal Thompson saw one in the Kalamazoo 

 River Calhoun County, in September, 1911. 



