TURTLES. 



449 



pearances enjoying the sun to its full benefit. They are, comparatively speaking, active 

 climbers, and may not infrequently be seen perched in situations which would seem 

 to be unattainable by creatures presenting so few adaptations other than natatory. 

 They are timid, however, and quickly retire to the water on being disturbed. Their 

 voracity often leads to an untimely death at the hands of the indignant angler, whom 

 they bother to no little extent by seizing his finely prepared tackle. The ordinary food 

 consists of the succulent stems of various water plants, as well as such unfortunate 

 tadpoles, earth-worms, or larval insects as may fall in its way. Though it begins hi- 

 bernation early in the fall, but a few warm days in spring are necessary to awake it 

 from its lethargy, when its shrill piping note is heard, often at night making the low- 

 lands riiig. The eggs are deposited at evening in a shallow hollow scraped out of the 

 soft sand of some neighboring bank, and carefully covered, where, unless found by some 

 marauding skunk, they are hatched by the sun's heat. This is our most beautiful turtle, 

 its bright colors distinguishing it from all other members of the order. The general 

 color above is dax-k brown, a yellow line dividing the vertebral plates, which are further 



Fig. 26S. — Chelopus insculptus, wood-tortoise. 



bordered, as well as the costals, by broader bands of the same shade. The marginal 

 plates are concentrically marked with deep red, a color which fades away soon after 

 the animal dies. Below, the sternum usually presents an unspotted, uniform bright 

 yellow color, though occasionally a beautiful purple obtains. In the western and more 

 central regions the Oregon turtle, C. oregonensis, takes the place of the present species. 

 Chelopus (/uttatus, the speckled-turtle, is a familiar form north and east of the 

 Ohio. The small yellow dots covering the black back are very characteristic, and it is 

 a strange fact that they increase in number with age, the young having but a single one 

 on each scale. Its habits are much like those of the painted-turtle. U. mulenbergii 

 is limited in its distribution to the valley of the Delaware, and is uncommon. G. 

 insculptus has a general distribution coinciding with that of C. guttatus, though it is 

 much more local. This animal has received the popular names of horse, sculptured, 

 river, and wood-tortoise, the first possibly being given because of the bright bay 

 color of the animal's body and limb. In certain localities it is an abundant animal, and, 

 unlike other members of the family, is not confined to the water, where it is greatly 

 annoyed by a leech, dozens of which arc often found attached to it, but is often met 

 VOL. III. —29 



