06servations on Females and Eggs of the Common Snapping Turtle, Chelydra serpentinal

Records were kept on 255 female snapping turtles, Chelydra serpentina serpentina, and the eggs taken from them. The total number of eggs involved was 9,348. Statistical summaries were made of the following: length of carapace, weight of animal, eggs per animal, clutch weight, clutch weight/animal weight, weight per egg, diameter of egg, egg number/animal weight. A relation between length and weight was calculated and compared with previous studies. Clutch weight/body weight did not vary with size of animal. Larger animals tended to have larger eggs. A rough prediction for number of eggs in a female could be made by separating the females weighing less than 5 kg from those weighing 5 kg or more. The weight in kg of the smaller is multiplied by the factor 9, the weight of the larger by 8. The resulting number plus or minus one third covers most of the observations made. This report is based on 255 female snapping turtles and their clutches which contained 9,348 eggs. The turtles were obtained from two sources. The Lemberger Company of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, supplied 103. The remainder, 152, were collected at various locations in upstate New York centering around Syracuse. The sites and methods of cap- ture for the females from Lemberger are not recorded. The New York turtles were taken on land during the laying season, usually in the second week of June. Individuals were weighed and the lengths of the carapaces mea- sured. All mature eggs were removed from each female. These were washed in running tap water, counted and, in recent years, weighed as a group. Four average-size eggs which appeared spherical were selected from the weighed clutch and their diameters were measured. Not all parameters were recorded for a given female, especially during the early part of the study. Consequently, the numbers of animals or clutches of eggs in the various analyses vary. The sample of animals, used in this study is not a random one. The smaller New York animals available were not taken and presumably