Dear of troy: Reptiles can be amazing. When I was about ten, my father brought home a snapping turtle, with a shell the size of a manhole cover. He shot it to keep his bird dog from getting bitten. Bird dogs will in some cases point turtles. His full choke 12 ga. shotgun had made a hole in turtle's head the size of a baseball. But for over a week if you kicked the turtle's legs, they would retract.

Dear Hyla: If you have not already read it, you would enjoy "Eggs for Agassiz" written by a Middleboro school teacher long ago. He knew Agassiz was writing a book on turtle embryology, and desperately wanted some freshly laid snapping turtle eggs to study. He had quite an adventure getting them to Cambridge on time. The original article was in ATLANTIC. and is cited in the very short version to which URL is:

http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1071.htm This is one of a series, all of which are very good reading.