Map and mud-turtle (_Malacoclemmys geographicus_) are the more common
names by which this animal is known; and as it is a characteristic
species of the waters of Illinois and occurs in countless numbers in
lakes, rivers, and flood-ground pools, it may be assumed that most of
our readers have met with it. It is exceedingly common in the Illinois
and Mississippi rivers, where it is often confounded with quite
another species. It is the only species seen by Mr. F. M. Woodruff on
the shores of Lake Michigan, whence he has frequently chased it to
the water and caught it in his hands. It is timid and inoffensive in
disposition, always sliding from bank or log when approached, and even
when captured shows none of the ferocity of the snapper. The great
strength of its jaws, unsurpassed in massiveness by any of our turtles,
would enable it to inflict serious wounds, and it is not a little
surprising to find such efficient weapons of offense unaccompanied
by special ruggedness of temper. Our streams and lakes, with their
numerous sandy shores, and their abundance of animal and vegetable
life, would seem to form an ideal habitat for these reptiles. Their
food consists ordinarily of fishes, frogs, and mollusks, crayfishes,
aquatic insects, and vegetation. They trouble fishermen at times by
devouring fishes which they have caught on trot-lines or in set nets.
They are not rapid swimmers. An animal once within reach of their
jaws must be very quick to escape capture. The eggs are white and are
provided with a rather tough shell. They bury their eggs in sand on the
shore and leave them to hatch by the sun's heat.
A gentleman who had a pet turtle which he kept in a tank tells some
interesting things about its appetite. During the early spring he
fed him on bits of meat, either raw or cooked. Having no teeth, he
swallowed these whole, gulping them down with large quantities of
water. Outside of his tank he would carry food in his mouth for hours
at a time, but apparently was unable to swallow it with his head out of
water. He always aimed well, and snapped up bits of meat as carefully
and as quickly as if they had been bits of life that might escape him.
When a morsel was too large to be swallowed whole, he held it down
firmly with his fore feet and pulled bits off with his mouth. His owner
once gave him a fish so large that it took him three hours to eat it,
and in all that time he never removed his foot. Rival turtles and
swift currents had probably taught him this bit of discretion in the
days of his freedom. One time he put twenty small fish averaging three
inches in length into his tank, thinking this would be a treat for him
and would save the trouble of feeding him for some time. A treat he
evidently considered it, for within half an hour he had disposed of the
entire lot. This excited the admiration of the gentleman's boy friends,
and the next day they brought in sixty small fish. At the end of the
second day the turtle looked about with an Oliver Twist-like air, which
plainly called for more. When there was any perceptible difference
in the size of the fish it always ate the largest one first. It ate
grasshoppers and dragon-flies, tadpoles, and little frogs--animal food
of any kind. It would eat eggs as readily as meat. This voracity of
appetite accounts for much of the destruction of young fish life in our
lakes and streams, where these turtles are extremely abundant.
In the Philippines, it is said, there lives a turtle that climbs trees.
The feet are strongly webbed, and each has three sharp claws.
[Illustration: FROM COL. L. E. DANIELS.
GEOGRAPHIC TURTLE.
COPYRIGHT 1899,
NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO.]