In July, 1952, H. B. Tordoff collected eight shells of juvenile _T. ornata_ in a dry creek bed near Sharon, Barber County, Kansas. Some of the shells had small tooth-punctures. The stream bed habitat and the appearance of the tooth punctures tended to incriminate raccoons as predators. Raccoons, more than any other carnivore mentioned above, possess the manual dexterity necessary to pry open the shell of a box turtle and bite away the soft parts. Badgers and possibly coyotes are probably the only local carnivores (excluding large dogs) that could crack open the shell of an adult turtle by sheer force. Adults of _T. ornata_, since they occasionally molest small juveniles, must be considered in the category of predators. When captive adults and juveniles were fed from the same container in the laboratory, the turtles occasionally bit one another accidently. Serious injury to the young was prevented by watching the adults closely and moving them away when they caught a smaller turtle by the leg or head. Similar accidents presumably occur in nature; juveniles and adults were sometimes found feeding side by side. William R. Brecheisen told me that adults kept in a stock tank at his farm in the summer of 1955 regularly and purposefully chased and bit small juveniles in the same tank. Brecheisen gave me a juvenile that had been so bitten; the right side of its head was badly damaged (the eye gone and a portion of the bony orbit broken) but was partly healed. Ralph J. Donahue told me that he saw an adult _T. ornata_ attack a juvenal _T. carolina_, and provided a photograph of the incident. The juvenile was not injured. Although small box turtles may occasionally be caught and killed by adults in nature, this seems not to constitute a major source of predation on the young. Other animals that may prey upon young box turtles occasionally (and that were known to occur at the Damm Farm) are bullsnakes (_Pituophis catenifer_), red-tailed hawks (_Buteo jamaicensis_), marsh hawks (_Circus cyaneus_), crows (_Corvus brachyrhynchos_), and opossums (_Didelphis marsupialis_), and domestic cats. Nest predators probably have greater effect on populations of _T. ornata_ than do predators of hatchlings, juveniles, and adults. Four robbed nests were found at the Damm Farm; in each instance, striped skunks were thought to be the predators. E. H. Taylor told me that he once saw a bullsnake swallow an entire clutch of newly laid eggs before the female turtle could cover the nest. DEFENSE Box turtles rely for protection on the closable shell and on inconspicuousness; defense reactions, except in the rare instances that biting is provoked, are purely passive.