MARSH TORTOISES. 19 



fresh-water snails, and insects ; nor does the flesh 

 of larger creatures drowned in the lakes, or 

 bogged in the marshes, come amiss to them. The 

 eggs are rounded, with a hard, white, calcareous 

 shell ; they are deposited in shallow cavities 

 scraped in the soft earth on the margins of the 

 waters in which they reside, whence the young, 

 hatched by the heat of the sun, readily find their 

 way into their proper element. 



Genus Emys. (Brongn.) 



In this genus all the feet are furnished with 

 five toes, but the inner toe of the hind foot is 

 destitute of a nail : the plastron is wide, and 

 oval, and is furnished with twelve plates ; the 

 marginal plates of the carapace are twenty-five. 

 The jaws are strong and cutting, the mandibles 

 notched, and toothed in a manner closely re- 

 sembling the beak of a Falcon. 



The most common European fresh-water Tor- 

 toise belongs to a genus allied to Emys, but dis- 

 tinguished by having the plastron attached to the 

 buckler by a cartilage, allowing it some degree of 

 mobility. It is named Cistudo Europcea, and is 

 extended over the whole south-east of Europe, 

 as far north as Prussia. It attains the length 

 of nine or ten inches ; the carapace is oval, of 

 a blackish hue, marked with yellowish specks ; 

 the skin of the neck and breast is similarly 

 spotted. It is a species of some elegance, but 

 it is most esteemed for the excellence of its fiesh, 

 and is commonly sold in the markets of Ger- 

 many. To improve its flavour, colonies of these 

 animals, kept in ponds, are fattened upon let- 



