146 THE AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 



slightly serrate and the anterolateral corner of each gular sometimes thrust 

 forward as a small protuberance. 



Head medium in size and flat above. Upper jaw notched in front and 

 with a small tooth-like projection on either side of the notch. Tail medium. 

 Skin covered with small scales; the latter largest on the limbs. Claws of fore- 

 feet longer in males than in females. 



Carapace olive, olive brown, brown or black. Costals and vertebrals nar- 

 rowly outlined anteriorly with yellow or olive. A narrow, occasionally inter- 

 rupted, red stripe running down the middle of the shell in most specimens. 

 Marginals brightly patterned with red and black above and below. A bright 

 red bar on the center of the lower side of each marginal; red markings more 

 or less crescentic on upper surface; numerous small red areas scattered about 

 the marginals. 



The plastron is yellow with a dusky or black central blotch. In Ohio 

 specimens this blotch exhibits a wide range in size and intensity. Normally 

 it is elliptical and involves all of the plastral scutes. In some specimens, how- 

 ever, short extensions run outward along the sutures and the larger blotches 

 usually include many irregular yellowish areas. In many the blotch may be 

 very small or may be seen only posteriorly; in several specimens from the 

 state it is entirely obsolete or but faintly discernible. The variability of the 

 blotch is illustrated by 50 specimens collected in one day in the Black Run 

 Swamp west of Fairport in Lake County. Of these, 20 had the blotch of 

 average shape and size, 18 had it large and with some extensions along the 

 sutures, 9 had it small, and in 3 no blotches could be seen. 



The top of the head is deep olive to black and the throat is striped with 

 yellow. A prominent yellow line extends backward from just below the eye 

 and may or may not meet a similar line on the lower jaw. There is a short 

 yellow streak behind the eye and a yellow spot on either side of the nape of 

 the neck with backward extensions of yellow. The feet are black, striped with 

 ted, and the tail is similarly marked. 



Specimens are frequently seen with the shell, especially the plastron, heav- 

 ily incrusted with a reddish or blackish deposit which ordinarily may be 

 chipped off with the thumb nail. In preservatives the natural reddish mark- 

 ings on the shell and soft parts fade to yellow. 



Specimens examined, 586; specimens preserved, 152; specimens studied, 84. 



Range. — North central New York and western Pennsylvania, west through 

 southern Ontario, the lower peninsula of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, northern 

 Kentucky and southeastern Illinois. 



No specimens of the eastern painted turtle, Chrysemys picta picta (Schnei- 

 der), were found in Ohio nor were any hybrids between picta and marginata 

 noted. 



The painted turtle undoubtedly occurs in every county in the state (Map 

 35). Locality records are: 



Ashland County: Ruggles Twp. (TZS 439); Savannah Lakes. Clear Creek 



