250 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



length ; the long neck can be shortened at will or ex- 

 tended with great rapidity. It snaps impatiently at 

 whatever is held before it, at the same time supporting 

 itself on its hind-feet, as if to venture a leap ; and from 

 this singularity it gets its name. What it has once 

 got hold of with its sharp nib it does not easily let go, 

 so long as it has any strength. It is eaten, as are al- 

 most all the varieties of turtle ; and found weighing 

 2-3-4 pounds. Still other sorts of the American land 

 and swamp turtles are to be seen here.* 



this snapping-turtle appears to be most like the Testudo ser- 

 pentina L.; but the singularly formed breast-shield makes it a 

 species apart. A more exact description of the dry specimen 

 will be given elsewhere. Its method of defence it appears to 

 have in common with the Test, ferox. See, Schneider's Natur- 

 geschichte der Schildkroten, 333. 



* Besides the soft-shelled and snapping-turtles mentioned, 

 the middle colonies of America (and probably the others) 

 have three other sorts of turtles, all of which are found fre- 

 quently about New York and Philadelphia. The first is that 

 described by Dr. Bloch as a new species, under the name of 

 Box-Turtle, Dosen-Schildkrote, (in Beobacht. der Gesellsch. 

 Naturf. Freunde zu Berlin, Bd. i, i stes Stuck), which is par- 

 ticularly distinguished by the movable breast-shield, divided 

 in the middle, and adapted for the complete closing of the 

 upper shell The two others have immovable breast-shields 

 closely attached to the upper armor by bony continuations of 

 the middle side-shell ; but in several ways are distinct from 

 each other to mention only the most striking differences, 

 (there will be better opportunity elsewhere for an exact and 

 circumstantial comparison), in the second species the evenly 

 arched upper shell is quite smooth, brown along the back, and 

 at the fore-edges marked with a narrow black and a broader 

 yellow border, likewise smooth, from which three yellow 

 streaks run over the back. The side-shell is blackish brown, 

 the breast-shield white. This I believe to be a new species. 



