154 CHAPTERS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



Soft-shelled turtle (Aspidonectes ferox as well as A. spinifer), a 

 well-known species in many localities. 



They are very ferocious, and difficult to find and capture. This 

 is due to the fact that they are usually found in muddy water, 

 either of the ponds or the rivers, and, being wonderfully quick in 

 their movements, netting them was not an easy matter. My col- 

 lectors rarely brought (hem in, and when they did I take it they 

 caught the specimens by baiting for them. There was a druggist 

 living in southern New Orleans in those days who had a young 

 one of these soft-shelled turtles in a jar alive in his shop, and it 

 was an extremely interesting form to study. It had the habit 

 of settling itself down in the sand on the bottom of the recepta- 

 cle, with no part of its body showing, save its snaky-looking 

 head. Carnivorous and voracious in the extreme, it only required 

 a tadpole, small frog or fish to come near it, when out shot its 

 neck, as quick as thought, and the victim was seized in its rapa- 

 cious jaws to be ravenously eaten in a trice. Big Soft-shelled 

 turtles have the power, when searching for food in shallow water, 

 to throw their entire body forward to seize upon it. These tur- 

 tles are fine eating themselves, and many people prefer them 

 even to the delicate green turtle, so long famous in the making of 

 soups. 



(Jiinther adheres to the name Trionyx for this genus, and 

 briefly describes some of them in his article "Tortoise" in the 

 Encyclopaedia Britannica (Vol. xxiii, p. 45!)). 



In many of the city stores where birds, fish, and animals of all 

 kinds are sold as pets we frequently see a tank containing many 

 young turtles, ranging all the way in size from that of a nickel 

 five-cent piece to that of a silver dollar. These are usually of 

 four well-known species, viz., the Pond Terrapin (Chrysemys 

 picta) ; the Spotted Turtle or Peep-turtle (Nanemys guttatus) ; the 

 Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina ) ; and the Musk Turtle (Cin- 

 osternum p. pennsylvanicum ). The first is known by the red and 

 black alternate bars on the under marginal surface of the cara- 

 pace; the second by the small orange spots sparsely distributed 

 over the black surface of its dorsum or back; the third by its long- 

 tail, and its rough dermodorsal scutes; and the last by its 

 smooth, light-brownish carapace, and the yellowish, longitudinal 

 stripes on ils head. Specimens of all of these and at all ages 

 have been taken by me in various parts of the country from New 

 England to the mouth of the Mississippi River. 



