38 Hibernation of the Lower Vertebrates. [January, 
passed through the woods and awaited further proceedings; they 
appeared to realize that they had entered upon their summer 
career too soon, anda few moments saw them all safely buried 
beneath neighboring brush piles and bunches of leaves. 
The box tortoise emerges from its winter quarters late in April 
or early in May. 
Mud turtles, including all the river and pond turtles, hibernate 
in this locality, but there will, no doubt, be occasional exceptions 
found to this rule. 
The “soft-shelled” turtles burrow deep into the mud, while 
their “ hard-shelled” relatives are not so susceptible to climatic 
changes, and their wintering places are not at such a depth. 
I have under my charge a water-power canal fourteen miles 
long, parts of which are thickly populated by turtles. In the win- 
ter time while making repairs, “ hard-shelled” turtles are often 
found at a depth of four to twelve inches beneath the earth in the 
bed of the canal; when one is found we feel quite confident of 
finding from two to four companions near by. . Many turtles fre- 
quent little coves along the banks of the canal, where the water 
is from two to three feet deep; these indentures are generally made 
by muskrats ; in repairing the destruction they cause as many as 
three or four “ hard shells” are sometimes taken from their muddy 
quarters. ` 
The White-Water rivers are very clear in winter, enabling one to 
examine even their deeper portions to advantage. I have never 
been able to hear of an instance where a turtle has been seen 
even in the deepest water; besides, the deeper pools are seined 
almost every winter,and I have been unable to learn of a turtle 
ever having been drawn out in a seine at that time of the year. 
My fellow-worker, Mr. E. R. Quick, gives me some notes 
which are exceptions to the rule of hibernation just mentioned. He 
says: “ I bave known mud turtles (Arvomochelys odoratus Latreille) 
to leave ponds which became dry in the winter time and go to 
the river near by. Inthe winter of 1874-5 I saw the tracks of a 
large turtle in the snow leading from the bed of a pond which 
had become dry, to the river a short distance away. I think the 
tracks were made while the snow was melting.” 
The above instances appear to indicate that the act of hiberna- 
tion is voluntary to a certain extent. I have found “ hard-shelled ” 
turtles that had been left at some distance from the river by win- 
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