Strecker — A New Spadefoot with Other Herpetological Notes. 121 



Terrapene Carolina triunguis (Agassiz). 



This box tortoise inhabits the eastern lialf of Texas, but is by no 

 means common. Examples have been recorded from Colmesneil, Tyler 

 County (C. S. Brimley), Demings Bridge, Matagorda County (S. W. 

 Garman), Gainesville, Cooke County (F. W. Cragin), and San Antonio, 

 Bexar County (H. C. Yarrow). Last October Prof. J. L. Kesler found 

 a specimen in Gurley's l)ottom, two miles south of Waco. It was con- 

 cealed in a patch of tall weeds and was discovered only by accident. 

 Since its capture it has been confined in a small enclosure. It spent the 

 winter in a shallow cavity in the hard ground, under cover of a mass of 

 dry moss and weeds. 



It is an adult. The shell is unsymmetrical, the plates on tlie right side 

 being much wider and longer than those on the left. Carapace above, 

 olive, without traces of the usual oVjscure markings of this subspecies. 

 Keel distinct. Neural plates indistinctly margined with black. A black 

 spot at Ijase of each- marginal. Plastron light yellow, the plates mar- 

 gined with black. Top of head light chocolate. Iris orange red. Upi)er 

 jaw, chin and throat, liglit yellow. A few scattered scales on throat 

 orange red. I'pper surfaces of limbs light chocolate. Inner surfaces of 

 fore-limbs orange red. Hind foot with three toes. 



Waco is well within the range of this animal, and it seems strange that 

 it should have been so long overlooked. 



'e 



Aspidonectes emoryi Agassiz. 



" Though this species is closely related to the southeastern soft-shelled 

 turtle ( T. ferox) there ar3 no tubercles on the front margin of the cara- 

 pace "—Ditmars, "The Reptile Book," X. Y., 1007, p. 78. 



I beg to diflfer from ]\Ir. Ditmars and others who have made the same 

 distinction. I have adult examples of ^l. emonjl which have from 14 to 

 18 conical tu])ercles on the front margin of the carapace. Dr. Siehenrock 

 referred a specimen of this type (labeled by me A. emonji) to A. spinifer 

 but afterward changed his opinion and recorded it under its correct 

 name. I have young examples 4 inches in length in which the tubercles 

 are alreaily in process of formation and are represented liy very small 

 round knobs. * 



In Aspidonectes ferox the carapace is olive or brownisli olive with dull 

 blotches or black rings; m nnoryi it is olive with numerous white dots. 

 In the former species young specimens and adults differ in coloration; 

 in the latter they are similar. A. ferox is much the larger turtle. Both 

 species occur in some localities in the eastern half of Texas (Brownsville 

 [Yarrow], Bullhide Creek, McLennan County [Baylor Univ. Coll.]). 



