THE LIZARD AND ITS ALLIES 



275 



The family Testudinidae l includes the hard-shelled, 

 fresh-water and land tortoises. < )ur snapping-turtle is 

 distributed from Canada to equa- 

 torial South America. It feeds 

 on fish and lays from forty to fifty 

 eggs, which it buries at a depth of 

 about a metre. The alligator 

 snapper of the Gulf States attains 

 the length of a metre, and is re- 

 garded as the " most ferocious and, 

 for its size, the strongest of all 

 reptiles." The box-tortoises oc- 

 cupy the northeastern and central 

 parts of North America. They 

 are well known by the fact that 



the body is short and high, the FIG. ir>7. - Trionyx, three- 

 plastron is provided with a mov- 

 able hinge, and the carapace is 

 colored black and yellow. 2 Other 



clawed turtle of the Mis- 

 sissippi valley. Reduced. 

 From Leuuis. 



FIG. 258. Tcrmpene Carolina, the box-tortoise. 



by AY. H. C. P. 



1 From tcst, a shell. 



Photo, of living' auimal 



2 Fig. 258. 



