HERPETOLOGY OF JAPAN. 



495 



less. The recently hatched young (No. 23526, fig. 384) is nearly 

 circular, with relatively much longer tail than the older ones, and 

 the posterior marginals are notched externally so as to make the 

 outline exceedingly serrate; the nuchal is usualh' notched; and the 

 gulars are truncate anteriorly, each with a lateral notch. The pro- 

 portions at various ages can be seen from the measurements in the 

 table of specimens at the end of this article. The young of the 

 first year difi'er also in color, being Isabella-colored above with 

 very faint dusky maculations and 

 reticulations and pale outer edges to 

 the marginals ; the plastron is more or 

 less uniform blackish brown with pale 

 edges and the marginals are pale with 

 dusky markings on the seams; the 

 pale longitudinal stripes on neck and 

 legs are more distinct than later. 



Variation. — The relative proportions 

 of the various shields and their seams 

 are subject to some variation. The 

 most important, perhaps, is that of the 

 femoral and anal seams, as the propor- 

 tion of these has been used as an im- 

 portant character in distinguishing the 

 various species of this genus. In most 

 specimens of C. japonica the femoral 

 seam is longer, often much longer than 

 the anal, but in our only very large 

 specimen (U.S.N.M. No. 9551) the anal 

 seam is 27 mm. and the femoral only 

 23 mm., consequently not less than 4 

 mm. shorter than the former. The 

 variations in color are neither con- 

 siderable nor important. Often the posterior corner of the anal 

 shields is pale or whitish, the pattern on the carapace more or less 

 distinct, -the stripes on side of head more or less obliterated or in 

 some specimens more emphasized than described above. One of our 

 specimens (No. 34067) has a pale black-edged stripe on the upper lip 

 at the angle of the mouth and a similar parallel stripe on the lower jaw. 



Habitat. — Confined to Japan, so far as known. 



Published records show that it occurs as far north at least as Tokyo. 

 Specimens from the neighborhood of this city and Yokohama are in 

 various museums. British ]\Iuseum has a specimen from Kol)e and 

 I have seen one from Kagoshima, Satsuma, in Kiusiu. Doctor 

 Lenz, in 1896, collected it in the provinces of Setsu, Kii, and Bizen 

 (Hamburg Mus. Nos. 184, 186, 187), and Okada records it from the 



Fig. 384.— Clemmys japc.nica, young. 



NAT. SIZE. No. 2352i;, U.S.N.M. 



