Photo by Howard H. Cleaves 



GATHERING THE EGGS OF THE TURTLE 



The turtle usually comes ashore in late May or early June and deposits her eggs in a 

 hole she digs in the sand. She lays an enormous number, ranging from fifty to a thousand, 

 according to her size, scoops back the sand, and returns to the sea, never again bothermg 

 about her eggs. If these are undisturbed, they hatch in from six to eight weeks. The baby 

 turtles have to shift for themselves, and as soon as they are hatched they seek the water; 

 but they are not willing to risk themselves in the open sea until they have developed their 

 powers of navigation in some shallow inlet. In gathering the eggs, the exact location is first 

 determined with a stick; then the egger digs through two feet of moist sand to the top layer 

 of eggs. The sand is allowed to cling to the shell until the egg is about to be cooked. 



My friend and fellow bird photogra- 

 pher, Mr. CHnton G. Abbott, had an ex- 

 perience with a cedar waxwing which 

 illustrates this point. The nest was lo- 

 cated in a shady place, necessitating the 

 taking of time-exposures only. But the 

 bird was nervous and turned her head 

 each time at the click of the shutter, pro- 

 ducing only a blur where her head 

 should have been and spoiling plate after 

 plate. The clever photographer over- 

 came the difficulty by hanging an alarm 

 clock beneath his camera. The waxwing 



soon became accustomed to the sound of 

 this instrument and a perfect photograph 

 was secured, for when the thread was; 

 pulled to make the exposure the "clicks- 

 of the shutter intermingled perfectly 

 with the ticks and tocks of the clock." 



One soon discovers that there is a vast 

 variation in the dispositions of different , 

 individuals of the same species. In work- 

 ing with the fish-hawks on Gardiners 

 Island we found that some returned to 

 their eggs or young almost as soon as 

 one had disappeared within his umbrella 



