Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-07-12
TURTLE HUNTING.
How the Big Kentucky Snappers
Are Caught.
Turtles Hunting Their Own Account
How They Lie Low in the Mud and
Doze and Pull Down the In
wary Duck.

How They Lie Low in the Mud and
Doze and Pull Down the In
wary Duck.
A wild mallard drake, with curled
tail and four wives, was quietly taking
his breakfast in the bosom of his
family yesterday morning among the
weeds and willows on the west bank OF
the Licking River at the mouth of Bank
Lick Creek. Kenton County. Kentucky.
The ooze here is rich in worms, slugs
and tender shoots ofaquatic vegetation,
and for time the drake swung him.
self on his axis and wobbled his tail in
the air while his beak was twittering
and sucking in the sludge under the
rivers surface. with considerable con-
centratiOn. II was plain that he had
struck soft snap and knew it.
Once. when he brought his head
above water to swallow slug and cart
a little largesse Of gentle quacks into
his harem, something seemed to take
hold of his legs from below. He
quacked frantically and beat the water
with his wings. Then his wings and
his back and his head went under,
while his four wives excitedly lifted
themselves into the air and winged
their way into another county.
Holy smoke! That must be big
fellow" remarked French Henry, as
he rowed toward the spot where the
ducks had been feeding. Henry is a
woodsman of some repute in this lati-
tude, whose attention just now is turned
20 the turtle harvest. With sixteen
foot skiff, a couple of No steel traps,
a fobert rife carrying % ball, long
handled stable fork. which he dubbed
a scoop" and half dozen three-inch
hooks attached to as many strong sea
grass lines, he was out on a turtle
hunt.
The river at this point is from twenty
10 forty yards wide, and lips its way
over the bar of clean sand and gravel
which time and spring freshets have
brought down the creek and anchored
here. Almost Immediately feathers
began to rise from spot about three
yards out from shore, and the clear
water became tinged in that place with
a bloody streak. As the skiff drew
near TO the troubled point we could
clearly make out the form of a turtle
anchored upon the sand about three
feet below the surface. and sheltered
from the force of the current by a
ledge of limestone. His shell looked
about two feet long by foot and
half in breadth. He held the body of
the mallarJ under him while he tore
its body and breast with his hooked
jaws, working with the eagerness of a
vulture and much the same general
action. in his feast upon the warm body
of the drake, aS that bird displays
when greedily tearing piece of car
rion of which he expects shortly to be
dispoSseSsed.
They will plant themselves in the
mud on the bottom of the river near
shore, those big fellows will" said
Henry, with their heads just peeping
out of their shells, and in the course of
half an hour the current has busted
them with mud and leaves and bits of
drift, until sunfish can't tell them
from rock to save his soul. and so he
floats down that way, with one eye
looking out for danger and the other
for grub, and all at once something
darts out from that muddy rock and
catches the sunfish by the side or the
back of the head or the tail. 1t don't
make any difference where it catches
him so long as it takes a good mouth
full. because that thing that has darted
out is swapping turtles head, and
whatever it catches it keeps. Then
the turtle tucks the fish under him,
just as he has the mallard there. and
tears and swallows like a hungry lion.
He will eat catfish and snakes. and
almost any thing that lives in water,
and once | saw one out in the meadows
catching grasshoppers. Straight goods.
sure. To see n big turtle on land is
enough TO make a horse laugh. This
one lifted his head and his tail as high
in the air as he could get them, and
then, raising himself on the tips of his
toes, he struggled along for a few
yards, when ali at once his strength
gave out and down he came kerplunk.
Whenever a grasshopper would light
within reach of his head, out would 90
his beak, and before the hopper knew
what hit him it would be his meat.
But this amt catching turtles, is it?''
He placed one of the pea-like bullets
in the little rifles breech. and laying
the gun TO his shoulder sighted along
its octagonal barrel. Instead of point
ing toward the snapper the guns muz-
zle bore on floating object about the
size of a mans thumb, which was
rapidly approaching US from above. |
With the report of the gun the object
disappeared, and then, grasping the
scoop. Henry leaned eagerly over the
sklfi's side and looked down into the