Man, in one sense or another, is a great enemy of soft-shelled turtles. Those caught by fishermen are destroyed because of the erroneous belief that they are harmful to fish populations. Some are drowned in hoop-nets or gill nets used by commercial fishermen. Many softshells are used by man for food. Herald (1949:118-19) reported the results of spraying an area with DDT and mentioned a 10-inch individual of _ferox_ that was eating a dead bluegill, and which "probably died as a result of ingesting contaminated food." Predation on eggs probably accounts for most mortality. Hamilton (1947:209) reported tracks of spotted skunks, raccoons and foxes seen about destroyed nests, and Cahn (1937:183) incriminated skunks and raccoons. Goldsmith (1945:449) reported a raccoon that unearthed seven nests in one night. Little and Keller (1937:221) wrote of egg shells found in the sand (probably not as a result of hatching), and Muller (1921:182) reported egg shells around dug-up nests, suggesting such predators as "ground moles," raccoons and crows. Chesser (_in_ Harper, 1926:416) said that in the Okefinokee Swamp the jackdaw (fish crow), raccoon, bear and domestic dogs will eat the eggs. Wright and Funkhouser (1915:122) recorded a young _ferox_ in the stomach of a water moccasin (_Agkistrodon piscivorus_), and suggested that young soft-shells probably are food of larger snakes. Kellogg (1929:26) wrote that stomachs of two alligators each contained one soft-shelled turtle. Newman (1906:136) found that young captives were eaten by individuals of _Chrysemys_ and _Sternothaerus_, and I found that they were eaten by _Kinosternon_. Mitsukuri (1905:261-62) stated that first- and second-year individuals of _T. sinensis_ are eaten by the adults. Breckenridge (1960) wrote that a clutch of eggs probably failed to develop because of an "... unusually cool season." Evermann and Clark (1920:595) stated that "many young appear to perish during the first winter." They (_op. cit._:594) found two eggs submerged in two feet of water and it is supposed that they never hatched. Dundee (1950:139) reported remains of soft-shelled turtles left on the mud of a dried swamp. Parasites