A Boy's Interesting "Zoo" 



[The following letter is from a boy friend whose fondness 

 for pets is very apparent. — Ed.] 



Dear Dr. Downing : 



I promised to write you about my animals, where I got 

 them, where I keep them, what I feed them, and why I like 

 them. 



My turtle, a western painted terrapin about five inches 

 long, which I found in one of the Washington park lagoons, I 

 keep in a box about three feet long. There are three or four 

 inches of sand in the bottom of this box, and a large pan of 

 water set in the sand. I also have a brick in the pan for him 

 to sun himself on. 



At first he was very timid but after a few weeks he would 

 eat worms, tadpoles, fishheads, small pieces of meat, etc., while 

 I was standing near. If I laid a piece of meat or a worm on 

 the brick he would seize it and go under the water where he 

 ate it. One afternoon I got several tadpoles out at Homewood 

 and put one into his pan. The turtle at once saw it and be- 

 gan an underwater chase after it. He caught and ate it, and I 

 became so interested that before I knew it I had only two 

 tadpoles left. 



When the sun shone 'on the porch where I kept him he 

 would climb out upon the brick and sun himself, until the air 

 got cooler and then go into the water and just leave the tip 

 of his nose extending above the surface. One cold morning 

 late this fall I went out on the back porch and found such a 

 thick layer of ice on the water that I could not see the turtle 

 at all. I thought it was "Good-Bye Turtle" but I took the pan 

 into the house and — a few hours after the ice had thawed 

 out he was all right. I put his box which had been on the 

 back porch down in the basement and in a few days I found 

 him half buried in the sand and he has been there ever since. 



The two tadpoles which I had left from those I fed my 

 turtle were placed in my aquarium. They fed upon algae and 

 any small bits of animal matter which they could find. Their 

 hind legs appeared first and when their front legs started I 

 placed a piece of wood in the aquarium for them to climb upon. 

 A few days later one of them crawled out upon the wood. 

 When he first came out his tail was not gone but it soon shrank 

 into his body. A little later the other one completed his 

 metamorphosis and crawled out by his companion. I kept a 



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