NOTES ON THE HABITS OF THE SOFT-SHELL TURTLE 181 
water dropping away toward the north into the navigable 
part of the river. With gently sloping sand and mud shores, 
and interior areas of open sand and densely growing willows, 
it offered a variety of natural conditions. In area it was 
about a half mile square. 
Of the two soft shell-turtles common in the vicinity, Amyda 
mutica, and spinifera, only the former was carefully observed. 
This species’ grows to an approximate length of fourteen 
inches, carapace measurement, and is highly esteemed as an 
article of food, being said to taste better than chicken. 
During the breeding season, June and July, the turtles 
frequently leave the water to bask, usually in the morning 
up until 2:00 P. M., and their tracks being very conspicuous, 
a count of them gives accurate estimate of their numbers. Ob- 
servation of these indicated that the turtles prefer beaches 
with a northern exposure, probably because of the greater 
amount of sunlight there in summer. The warmer the day, 
the greater was the number of tracks. On July the second, 
apparently thirty-seven turtles had congregated within fifty 
feet of beach on the north side of the island while only three 
tracks could be found on the entire south side. The turtles 
emerge from the water in an almost straight line until from 
four to ten feet up the beach, where they remain awhile in 
the sun, turning around several times before returning to the 
water, the return track often overlapping the first. When 
alarmed, the animals slip down the beach and into the water 
with great rapidity. On several occasions large females were 
disturbed while laying their eggs, about fifty feet from water, 
and covered the distance faster than a man can run. They 
are not at all awkward-in their land movements as might be 
inferred from their appearance. ; 
In this locality the ege laying season covers the last half 
of June and the early part of July. In building her nest, the 
female selects a spot with an. unobstructed view of the open 
water, and from ten to sixty feet inland. Here she scoops 
out a hole in the sand, about five inches in diameter, and ten 
inches deep, using her fore paws in the operation, and piling 
up the loose sand around the hole. The necessary conditions 
for incubation are sufficient dampness so that the sand will 
just cling together, and absence of clayey or earthy matter 
