The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-13
A NATURAL HISTORY STUDY
By ERNEST HAROLD BAYNEs.

pond. particularly IL portion of or the
margin is swampy. has great possibilities
for the nature student. There seems to be
no limit to the variety of living creatures
which he may find there in the course of
year. In this respect a pond is superior
even to a brook.
L live near such pond, and / visit ii
often. 1t has its counterpart in any one
of ten thousand little ponds throughout the
country, yet the United States government
does not employ a number of clerks suffi-
cient to record the business which is trans
acted within sight Of its banks No matter
how hot or how cold the weather; no mat
ter how dull things are in the country
round about-here there is always some
thing interesting to be or heard. Here
| come in the early spring to see the first.
and seemingly the brightest. of the marsh
marigolds reflected in the cold, clear water.
and to lift from the shadows masses of
transparent frog spawn. in which may be
seen scores Of tiny black specks, which
some day will be frogs. Here. too, | come
at night TO hear the lonely bittern calling
his mate. in voice which sounds like water
beating against the mouth of a cavern. And
later in the year | find their nest in the
marsh near by, handful of coarse grasses
with four or five buff eggs. And so all
through the summer when the turtles sit in
rows on the half-sunken logs and when the
frogs squat upon the lily pads, until the
fall. when the muskrats build their winter
houses on the mud flats, and when the
black duck and the wild geese drop in to
spend few days on their way to the
South. Nor is business suspended in the
winter, for then under the shelving ice
along the bank | mark the tracks of the
mink. and when 1 see between them the
tiny footprints of mice | know pretty we'll
what he was looking for
Amongst the other inhabitants of this
pond are some huge swapping turtles,
whose age is the subject of frequent
discussions at the nearest country
grocery. Some bear upon their shells
certain dates and other marks. which
1t is claimed were carved more than
fifty years ago. 1t is not often they are
seen, but now and then one of these old
villains will raise his great snake-like head
above the surface of the pond and blink
pair of the coolest. cruelest eyes which ever
disfigured the head of reptile. Nothing
in the pond is sacred to these hardened old
sinners. No doubt they live largely on fish,
but young muskrats and ducklings are
often jerked below the surface of the pond
to rise no more, and wild mice. which some
times swim across. foolhardy, to say
the least. Last June / was walking along
the bank of a little stream which flows
through a meadow and into a pond, when
my attention was attracted by the peculiar
movement Of a patch of waving grass. 1t
was easy to see that the wind haG little to
do with 1T, SO ran over to investigate. In
the middle of good-sized depression
caused by the fiattening down OF the
grass stood a giant swapping turtle,
weighing fifty pounds if an ounce,
should say, and with great horny jaws
agape, ready for business. / guessed
that it was probably a female on her way