142 ON A TORTOISE FOUND IN FLORIDA 



specifications from the Cuban example are here reproduced, 

 to be supplemented by additional particulars furnished by 

 the others taken on the opposite side of the gulf stream. 



"A small turtle, sent by Prof. Felipe Poey, of Havana, 

 possesses characters that separate it from both of the species 

 C. pennsylvanicum and C. leucosloniu?n, which it ap- 

 proaches most nearly. It is elongate ; the snout is nar- 

 rower and more pointed than that of the first mentioned 

 species. The greatest length of the carapace is exactly 

 four, its greatest width two and three-fourths, behind the 

 middle, the greatest length of the plastron three and nine- 

 tenths, and the width of the plastron across the pectoral 

 shields is one and nine-tenths inches. Anteriorly the 

 plastron is rounded ; posteriorly it is truncate, with a shal- 

 low notch between the anal shields. The pair of pectoral 

 shields, like the pair of preanals, meet on the median line 

 in a suture of about three-eighths of an inch. A single pair 

 of barbels close together under the lower jaw. 



Color light yellowish-olive with darker margins to the 

 shields. Head sprinkled with light spots. A narrow 

 streak of light color passes around the snout on the rostral 

 angle above the eye and along the side of the head to the 

 neck." 



There are several items from the Cuban specimen to be 

 added to the above. The dark color of the edges of the 

 shields occupies the free outer margins. From the nuchal 

 scale backward there is a yellow stripe over each of the 

 vertebral scales on the median line. At each side of this 

 near the upper edge of the costals a similar stripe is to be 

 seen, which may or may not be present on the hindmost 

 costal. On adult examples the yellow line on vertebrals 

 and costals gives the appearance of a low keel, though the 

 only scale at all carinate is the anterior of the dorsal series. 

 Carinae arc present under the stripes on specimens just 



