The Harrison times., 1915-06-26

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 omniyorous appetite Of youth
they were very well 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
hatched out by the heat Of the sun,
and take no further interest in them
whatever,
Three nests that ! examined, and
for observation purposes designated
Nos. /, and 3, contained 81, 45 and
40 eggs respectively, Another nest,
No, 4, was found later to contain none
but infertile eggs,
The eggs in nest No I were depos.
tied during the night Of June l1.12, the
others between June 13 and June l6.
The development Of the young Is slow.
On July 30 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
stlll quantity Of the yolk Of the egg
to be absorbed On September s the
yolk was nearly all gone, and on Sep
tomber ~ the young were out OF the
shels-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 AZ stout little Jet black crea.
lures, with ridged and tubcrclod cara
PAGES about one and quarter inches
long, and quite soft M yet, When
their heads were drawn IN they looked
remarkably like large piolled walnuts
They seemed to be ignorant Of the
"Kutur" practicod by their elders and
made no attempt to bite A couple OF
them brought home could not be In.
duced to eat anything and persisted In
burylng themselves IN the damp sand
with which their box was provided
Nest No, 9 hatehed out about septom'
Der %, but about one.thlrd OF the eggs
were inrertllc,
As In the case Of nest No, ! the
young made no attempt TO leave the
saRd, and II seemed evident that they
intended to spend the winter there
for on September "a the young Of nest
No, t. hNtchcd twelve days before,
were still buried, Az the thermometer
not infrcQuently goes down TO 30 de-
greea 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 maraudng
habits Of this animal felt somewhat
uneasy for my turtle eggs hut at this
time they escaped, for there was no
visible mark on The surface Of the sand
10 reveal the position OF the nests, and
before the young emerge the unbroken
eggs have no smell that could give
the skunk a clue hut whom the young
como ont they have strong od0r that
dulcny betrOye chem 10 the enemy,
even through nix inches or one
foot Of covering sand And no on Sep
tember % n skunk discovered nest No,
ana ate all the young turtles, The
rnidor also ate all the infortle eggs Of
nest No 4, and dug up ana destroyed
two other nests near BY which had
not known of before,