When the snapper elevates itself for the attack, with half-open mouth and sullen eyes, there is said to be something fiery and defiant in its attitude, though it is so slow and awkward in recovering itself after missing its point of attack that it presents a most ludicrous appearance. These turtles are remarkably strong. The elder Agassiz states that he observed one bite off a piece of plank more than an inch thick. They also attain considerable size, being the largest inland representative of the order, specimens not infrequently exceeding three feet in length. It is carnivorous in its habits, and is very destructive of fish, small quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles. Many have been the water-fowl which have ventured too close to their voracious enemy. Its appetite is said to be so great that it will even catch young alligators, and devour them in spite of their teeth and struggles. The flesh of the snapping-turtle is delicate, tender, and of rich flavor. Every fisherman knows that it will take almost any kind of bait, provided it be of animal substance. It, however, prefers fish, and cannot resist a hook so baited. In the northern United States, from the tenth to the twentieth of June, it has been observed, the female, at early morning, leaves the water and crawls to a sandbank, digs a small cavity with its hind leg, into which the small, round eggs are deposited to the number of twenty-five or thirty, when the sand is drawn over them, the surface smoothed down, and the animal is soon back in the water, the entire operation not lasting over twenty minutes. This method is different from that of our other land turtles. Nothing but sand will suit the purpose of the snapping-turtle. In order to find a suitable spot for the burial of her eggs, the female is often forced to traverse a considerable distance. The sand must be quite dry and exposed to the full rays of the sun. The little ones are hatched in July. The young run by instinct into the water. Remarkable stories are told of the longevity of the turtle and of its tenacity of life. That they live to near a century is well authenticated. After the head is severed from the body the head will open and shut the mouth and roll the eyes. In one case a stick was held between the open jaws, which closed upon it with violence, and kept hold of it. Meanwhile the headless body was crawling on the ground. An allied form (_Macrochelys lacertina_) inhabits the tributaries of the Mexican Gulf, extending northward in the Mississippi as far as Missouri. [Illustration: FROM COL. F. M. WOODRUFF. SNAPPING TURTLE. 1/4 Life-size. COPYRIGHT 1899, NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO.] THE STORY OF LITTLE BILLEE. CAROLINE CROWNINSHIELD BASCOM.