1868.] 177 [Allen. 



p. 210.) Mud Turtle. " Stink-pot." Found at certain localities 

 (Ashley's pond, Holyoke — C. W. Bennett), but does not seem to be 

 so generally distributed as the others. 



6. Chelydra serpentina Schw. (Emysaurus serpentina Linn., 

 Storer's Rep., p. 212.) Snapping Turtle. Common; living in ponds 

 and muddy streams. 



Two species besides those above enumerated have been known to 

 occur in other parts of the State. One is the Emys meleagris Ag. 

 (Cistudo Blandingii Holbrook, Storer's Rep., p. 215); and the other 

 is the great Marine Leather Tortoise (Spharffis coriacea Merrem). 

 Respecting the latter, Dr. Storer states (Rep., p. 217) that the only 

 specimen of it he had heard of as having been seen on the coast of 

 the United States, "was taken asleep on the surface of the water in 

 Massachusetts Bay, in the year 1824, and was purchased by Mr. 

 Greenwood of the New England Museum, of the captors, for two 

 hundred dollars, and placed in this Institution, where it still remains." 

 This specimen is described by Dr. Storer in his Report on the Rep- 

 tiles of the State. Prof Agassiz, in his " Contributions to the Nat- 

 ural History of the United States," (Vol. I, p. 273), describes another 

 caught near Cape Cod in 1848, and now in the Museum of Compar- 

 ative Zoology; thus far these are the only ones known to have been 

 captured on our coast. 



Though a tropical species, breeding on the Tortugas and Bahama 

 Islands and Keys, it is nevertheless a wide wanderer. Dr. De Kay 

 says it was first noticed on the coast of the United States in 1811, 

 when a specimen then captured was described and figured by Dr. 

 Mitchell.^ Another specimen was taken off Sandy Hook in 1816, 

 and preserved in the American Museum of New York. The tliird 

 was the specimen captured in Massachusetts Bay. A fourth was 

 taken, according to De Kay, in Long Island Sound, Sept. 7, 1826; 

 and another in 1840, in Chesapeake Bay. Still another, already 

 mentioned, was caught near Cape Cod in 1848; and according to 

 Dr. F. H. Brown, 2 one was taken off Saco, Maine, in September, 

 1862. 



Respecting Emys meleagris, Dr. Storer (under Cistudo Blandingii) 

 states he had received a fine living specimen from Haverhill, through 

 the kindness of Mr. Edward Appleton. Prof. Agassiz mentions hav- 

 ing received it from Lancaster, from Dr. W. I. Burnett and Prof S. 



1 Med. Kepos., New Ser., 1812, p. 191, and 1813, figures. 



2 See Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. IX, p. 236. 



PROCEEDINGS B. S. N. H.— VOL. XII. 12 DECEMBER, 1868. 



