Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-07-06

those of the swapping turtle are per-
fectly round. They are just about one
inch in diameter and have stiff.
parchmentlike shell of creamy white
or pinkish color. A friend tells me
that he has eaten them as boy. and
to the omnivorous appetite of youth
they were very we'll favored. Although
the dawn Of motherly affection is to
be seen in animals much lower in the
scale of life than the swapping turtle.
these latter are entirely devoid Of the
maternal instinct, and after depositing
their eggs they leave them to be
Matched out by the heat of the sun,
and take no further interest in them
whatever.
Three nests that l examined, and
for observation purposes designated
Nos. l, and 8, contained 81, As and
40 eggs respectively. Another nest.
No. 4, was found later to contain none
but infertile eggs.
The eggs in nest No. / were depos-
tied during the night of June 11-12, the
others between June 10 and June 16.
The development of the young is slow.
On July 80 the embryos in nest No. l
were perfectly formed, but were small
and quite colorless except for the dark
eye spots. BY August 10 they had as
sumed the black coloration peculiar to
the immature young, but there was
still a quantity of the yolk of the egg
to be absorbed. On September 8 the
yolk was nearly all gone, and on Sep
TENDER IL the young were out of the
shells-an incubation period Of exact
ly three months. They all, however,
remained buried in the sand, and those
/ dug up began to burrow again as
soon as laid them down. They were
thickly smeared with egg matter and
damp sand, but when washed clean
appeared as stout little jet black crea-
lures. with ridged and tubercled cara
PAGES about one and quarter inches
long, and quite soft as. yet. When
their heads were drawn in they looked
remarkably like large picked walnuts.
They seemed to be ignorant Of the
"Kultur" practiced by their elders and
made no attempt to bite. A couple Of
them l brought home could not be in
duced to eat anything and persisted in
burying themselves in the damp sand
with which their box was provided.
Nest No. 2 Matched out about Septem-
Der %, but about one-third of the eggs
were infertile.
AS in the case of nest No. 1, the
young made no attempt to leave the
sand, and it seemed evident that they
intended to spend the winter there,
for on September "a the young Of nest
No. l. Matched twelve days before,
were still buried. As the thermometer
not infrequently goes down to 30 de-
grees below zero here, was looking
forward with interest to see how the
young turtles would stand the intense
winter cold, for they were certainly
not below the frost line; but at this
point my investigations were arrested.
In July and August had several
times noticed skunk tracks on the
beach, and knowing the marauding
habits of this animal l felt somewhat
uneasy for my turtle eggs. But at this
time they escaped, for there was no
visible mark on the surface of the sand
to reveal the position OF the nests, and
before the young emerge the unbroken
eggs have no smell that could give
the skunk clue. But when the young
come out they have strong odor that
quickly betrays them to the enemy.
even through six inches or one
foot of covering sand. And so on Sep
TENDER rs skunk discovered nest No.
l and ate all the young turtles. The
raider also ate all the infertile eggs of
nest No. 4. and dug up and destroyed
two other nests near. by. which had
not known of before.