Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 613 



by being run over by trains on the railroad and by wagons on 

 the pubHc highway. Many are destroyed and many more intolei-- 

 ably annoyed by thoughtless men and boys who shoot them oi- 

 stone them whenever they see them basking near shore. 



The claws of some of the painted turtles caught early in the 

 spring of 1901 (Apr. 4) just after they came out of winter quar- 

 ters, seemed to be remarkably long and sharp. Four examples 

 were caught, and the length of the middle claw of the front feet 

 was taken. The claw of the first was j inch long, that of the sec- 

 ond I inch long, that of the third l inch and that of the fourth f 

 inch. The turtles were only of moderate size, the carapace being 

 about 4^ to 5 inches long. 



The Painted Turtle is easily distinguished from all other species 

 of this region by its shiny black, blue-black or brownish-black 

 color, and bright red on the neck. It may be described as follows : 



Shell broad and depressed, broadest behind the middle; shell 

 flaring posteriorly, its surface very smooth, no trace of keel even 

 in the young. 



Color of carapace dark green or greenish black, the hinder 

 border of the costal and vertebral scutes narrowly bordered with 

 black, the anterior border with slightly wider bright red lines lying 

 immediately against the black margin ; the red or yellow lines not 

 joining to form straight lines across the back; a very narrow red 

 line along middle of back; upper surfaces of marginal plates with 

 many crescent-shaped bright red marks; lower surfaces of the 

 marginals black, with large splotches of blood-red and bright yel- 

 low; plastron bright yellow or brownish red, with a large dusky 

 blotch on central portion; soft skin of head, legs and tail dark 

 olive, with red stripes; two large waxy yellow spots on back of 

 head, nearly as large as eye, these prolonged backward as two 

 narrow pale yellow stripes; another short yellow stripe from upper 

 corner of eye and another from lower side of eye back on neck : 

 two red stripes on front of each fore leg, and similar ones on 

 posterior surfaces of thighs ; besides these, numerous small red 

 spots all over soft parts. Sometimes, in the brownish-black indi- 

 viduals, the sutures of the back are red. The red markings fade 

 to yellow in alcohol. 



The Painted Turtle varies somewhat in color, the ground-color 

 in most of the examples being a brownish-black. In some cases 

 there is a considerable mixture of green in the ground-color, giving 

 the whole shell a somewhat livelier hue. In some examples seen 

 the lines between the scutes of the carapace were rod. and there 

 were other markings of red on the back — sometimes a red dorsal 



