BIOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY 223 



In view of these seemingly adverse circumstances, the breeding terrapins 

 as well as some of the young that had attained a marketable size were sold, 

 and in 191 8 the plant virtually was abandoned. The Beaufort Terrapin 

 Farm was patterned after the experimental plant of the Bureau of Fisheries, 

 and the success attained in raising terrapins compared very favorably with 

 that of the Bureau of Fisheries." 



A contributing cause for discouragement to the company was the fact 

 that the heating system for the nursery house was designed for use of 

 anthracite coal, which was unobtainable in Beaufort during the war. 



As regards the deprivation of food for terrapin during long periods of 

 confinement, it may be remarked that it is a condition of the preparation of 

 terrapin for the table that they should have been starved for a considerable 

 period, in order that the digestive tract may be entirely empty. Before cook- 

 ing or serving, terrapin are cleaned only on the outside by scalding for 

 removal of the outer skin and the horny covering of the shell and jaws; 

 after further cooking, bottom and top shells and the head are removed to 

 be used for the soup; only the gall bladder is then discarded; all the re- 

 mainder goes into the stew. 



KINDS OF TERRAPIN 



Diamond-back terrapin occur along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from 

 Buzzard's Bay to Texas, but systematists have recognized distinct species 

 on the Atlantic coast and the Gulf coast and several subspecies. The 

 species Malaclemmys pileata (knobbed terrapin) occurs along the Gulf 

 coast with fairly distinct subspecies for, respectively, the region of the 

 west coast of Florida, an intermediate zone westward to the mouth of the 

 Mississippi and the westernmost territory from the Mississippi to and 

 including the coast of Texas. All the Gulf coast terrapin can be distin- 

 guished from terrapin of the Atlantic coast south to Florida by the prom- 

 inent knobs or tubercles on the plates of the middle part of the upper shell. 



On the Atlantic side the species Malaclemmys centrata (Latreille) occurs 

 from Buzzard's Bay, Massachusetts, to Florida; but two subspecies are rec- 

 ognized in this area. The species centrata proper is found from the region 

 of Cape Hatteras to Florida. The range of the subspecies M. centrata con- 

 centrica (Shaw) is from the Hatteras region northward to Massachusetts. 

 The estuaries of North Carolina are therefore within the ranges of both the 

 southern species proper and the northern subspecies: both "Chesapeake" 

 and "Carolina" terrapin are native to the State. The species centrata is 

 believed to have been described from terrapin from Charleston, S. C, 

 concentrica from examples from Delaware Bay. 



It must be understood that there is no sharp line of division between the 



