22 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 



tubercles on the under side of the leg. Hind legs with four claws ; the fifth toe distinct, but 

 clawless. Tail short, very robust at. base, and terminating in a stout blunt horny point ; the 

 sides of the tail with from four to six series of short tubercular processes, which are likewise 

 numerous around the vent. 



Color. Shell olive brown. Sternum yellow or orange and darker, occasionally black in 

 the vicinity of the sutures. Head brownish, with irregular lines, streaks and spots of a lighter 

 color, which also extend to the sides of the neck. Irides dark brown. Feet and tail dusky 

 brown ; beneath lighter. 



Total length, 6"0. Length of the tail, 0-6. 



Ditto of the shell, 4'0. Height, 1-8. 



New-Jersey has hitherto been considered as the highest eastern limit of this species ; but 

 it is (although sparingly) found in the southern counties of this State, west of the Hudson. 

 I find no mention of it in Storer's Report on the Reptiles of Massachusetts, although it is 

 cited in Hitchcock's Catalogue. It extends to Florida, and I presume through the Western 

 States. It inhabits ditches and muddy ponds, and often takes the hook. It preys on fish and 

 the smaller aquatic reptiles. Like the odoratus, it has a strong musky smell, and it cannot 

 readily be confounded with any known species. 



GENUS STERNOTHtERUS. Bell. 



Head sub-quadrangular, pyramidal in front, covered in front with a single plate. Warts 

 on the chin. Twenty-three marginal plates. Sternum cruciform, bivalve, anterior valve 

 only movable. Supplemental plates contiguous, placed on the sterno-costal suture. 



THE MUSK TORTOISE. 



Sternothsrcs odoratus. 



PLATE VII. FIG. 13. — (STATE COLLECTION.) 



Testudo pensylvanica. Schcepff, Hist. Test. p. 110. 



T. odoranle. Lat. Hist. Rep. Vol. 1, p. 122. 



T. odorata. Daodin, Hist. Reptiles, Vol. 2, p. 189, pi. 24, fig. 3. (Sternum.) 



Cistuda odorata. Say, Ac. Sc. Nat. Vol. 4, p. 206 and 216. 



Sternothazrus. Bell, Zool. Jour. p. 209. 



Kinostemon odorata. Gray, Synops. apud Griffith, Vol. 9, p. 13. 



Merrem, Syst. Amphib. p. 27. 



Le Conte, Ann. Lye. Vol. 3, p. 122. 



Harlan, Med. and Phys. p. 156. 



Bon. Oss. p. 169. Chelon. Tab. analyt. 



Dum. et Bib. Vol. 2, p. 358. 



Storer, Mass. Report, p. 210. 



Holbrook, N. Am. Herpetology, Vol. 3, p. 29, pi. 4 ; and Vol. 1, p. 133, pi. 22 of 2d Ed 



Characteristics. Very small. Shell gibbous, subcarinate ; first vertebral plate pointed behind. 

 Small, brownish, with darker radiating streaks on a dark olive green 

 ground. A disagreeable odor. Length 3^ inches. 



