134 OUR BACKDOOR NEIGHBORS 



Sometimes the Naturalist guessed the secret 

 of Mother Snapping Turtle and found her 

 nest. Knowing about the time when she 

 would be making her journey in search of a 

 nesting place, he would spend some of the 

 warm afternoons during the middle of June in 

 the vicinity of the pond or the river where the 

 snapping turtles lived. Sometimes he would 

 surprise her in the act of laying her eggs. If 

 disturbed, she would try to hide by drawing 

 her head as far back as possible into her shell, 

 and later make off to the water without cover- 

 ing her eggs. 



One spring he decided that it would be very 

 nice to raise a family of turtles himself, so he 

 carefully took the eggs, which were round as 

 marbles and about an inch in diameter, and 

 placed them in a box of sand near the "Bug- 

 house." The box of sand was kept in the open 

 sunshine, where it was kept warm by the sun 

 and moist by the rains of summer. When at 

 last September came, and the time drew near 

 for the little turtles to appear, he carefully 

 removed the sand from above them, leaving 

 only a very thin layer which would betray any 

 movement from beneath. 



He had not long to wait, for soon the eggs 



