NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 187 



with Prof. Baird, I got from an Indian woman, living in a hut on the Tabas- 

 quillo River. I asked for turtles, when she said she had one, but it was in 

 the woods behind the house. She went to the door and called, 'Mohina, 

 Mohina !' and the turtle came out of the bushes to the house, and was sold to 

 me. I could never induce her to eat any thing for more than three months, 

 until I gave her, in Washington, some cherries, which she tried, and after- 

 warcfe commenced to eat. It was told me that the Mojina eats animal food (?)" 



Ptychemys o r n a t a, Aga ss. et Bell. 



" Hicotea " of the natives. 

 Dermatemys mavei, Gray. " Emys berardi, Dum." 



Two specimens, eighteen inches long, of this remarkable species, agreeing 

 with Gray's figure, except in the single gular plate, and presence of a minute 

 gemmiform intergular plate, as in some Hydraspididae. This is the first in- 

 stance of the kind among the Emydidse, of which family this species presents 

 every character. Called Tortuga blanca. 



" Hicotea and Tortuga live ou vegetable food, leaves, grass, and, principally, 

 the fruits of Tobillo (Spondias mombin) and Amate (a Ficus.) At the time 

 the amate is ripe, the tortugas are caught easily, and in numbers, under these 

 trees. They distingui? h in Tabasco three kinds of Tortuga : T. blanca, or del 

 rio, (white or river turtle ;) T. negra, or de popal, (black or swamp turtle,) 

 perhaps the same ; and T. de Chilapa, (a village,) or de Chichicaste, (a very 

 bitter Euphorbiacse, ) which I have not seen. It is not eaten, as the former 

 two are ; the flesh is bitter and of a bug smell ; their form is said to be not 

 elliptic, but nearly round. It is believed that they feed on chichicaste. 

 (Chichic is Mexican, and means bitter.)" 



Prof. Poey has sent me from Cuba some living specimens of the Ptychemys 

 decussata, (Emys rugosa, Sagra, and Trachemys rugosa, Agass. = 9 fide Poey,) 

 whose habits contrast with those of the P. ornata and Dermatemys. They 

 devour flesh eagerly, but reject bread and vegetables, unless soaked with fresh 

 gravy, and dislike apples, the only fruit offered them, 



Chelydra sp. Called Chiquihuau. 



This variety is well marked, but that it will eventually be found to be a 

 different species seems very doubtful. In the single individual at my disposal, 

 the only peculiarity observable in the shell is the broader and shorter poste- 

 rior sternal lobe, which scarcely measures three-quarters the anterior, and has 

 not the gradual acumination of the ordinary variety. The axillary plates are- 

 only distinguishable upon close examination, owing to the obsolescence of the 

 sutures. The lateral processes of.the pubis are more than double the length of 

 the median ; in a specimen of the northern variety, the former are only a 

 little longer than the latter. The skin of the occiput and neck, instead of being 

 tuberculate, is furnished with numerous flexible dermal appendages, and one 

 side or angle of the warts on other regions of the skin is free. The large 

 scales of the row on the outside of the antebracliium are larger and almost 

 entirely free, forming a broad serrate dermal border. The caudal crest is not 

 so elevated as in the common form, but one large process being higher than 

 long. The color of all the under surfaces is very light. 



Claudius a n g u s t a t u s, sp. nov. 



Character gencricus. A single row of marginal plates. Plastron small, cru- 

 ciform, solid; hyo- and hyposternal bones connate, forming an exceedingly 

 slender bridge, which connects the plastron with the carapace, and is not cov- 

 ered by a corneous axillary plate, but by thin epidermis. No inguinal or gular 

 plates ; anals united. Carapace completely ossified, extending much beyond 

 plastron anteriorly and posteriorly, elevated and narrowed in front, neither 

 dilated nor steeply descending behind; vertebral line nearly plane. Verte- 

 bral neural segments eight, the last pair of costals meeting on the median 

 line, but separated from the small posterior marginal by a large penultimate 



1865-] 



