Vertebrate remains found in the stomachs of box turtles seem to result chiefly from the ingestion of carrion. One box turtle ate a white egg (unidentified) that had fallen from a nest and another was seen with a blue down feather clinging to its mouth. Several colleagues have told me of box turtles eating small mammals caught in snap-traps and Marr (1944:489) reported a similar incident. J. Knox Jones told me he once found an ornate box turtle in the nest of a blue-winged teal in Cherry County, Nebraska; the three eggs in the nest had been broken. The only authentic record of an ornate box turtle preying on a vertebrate under natural conditions was one supplied by Ralph J. Donahue who saw an adult catch and eat one of a brood of bobwhite quail. In many areas where box turtles are abundant, it is the opinion of local residents that the turtles decimate populations of upland game birds by eating the eggs and young of these birds; these opinions result probably from rare encounters such as the one described by Donahue. I believe that box turtles at the Damm Farm were sometimes able to catch young frogs and tadpoles (chiefly _Rana catesbeiana_ and _R. pipiens_) at the margins of ponds. In autumn literally thousands of young _Rana_ were present in these places. Ornate box turtles ordinarily attempt to catch and, without further examination, to eat, small objects moving on the ground, but are more critical of stationary objects. Captive turtles, for example, would immediately chase and seize a grape that was pulled or rolled slowly across a floor but a stationary grape was examined and then smelled before it was eaten. Similar observations were made a number of times with living and dead insects in the field and in the laboratory. A turtle discovering an object that is of possible value as food, approaches it closely, turns the head from side to side (presumably using the eyes alternately to examine the object), and then, with head cocked at a slight angle, momentarily presses the nostrils against the object (Pl. 28, Fig. 4). If acceptable as food, the object is then swallowed whole or taken into the mouth with a series of bites; large insects are usually broken into several pieces in the process of being bitten and swallowed. Larger objects, such as dead vertebrates, are torn to pieces with the beak and forefeet before they are swallowed. Hatchlings, when fed for the first time, ignored inanimate foods but eagerly chased mealworms, catching them usually by the anterior end. The tendency of the young of certain species of turtles (especially captives) to be more carnivorous than adults is probably due to the association of movement with food; recognition of inanimate objects as food is presumably learned by older individuals.