19.C0] Turtles of North Carolina 65 



The small pond terrapins inclnde onl.y three of onr species, the 

 speckled terrapin in which the head and shell are marked with round, 

 yellow dots, the mountain terrapin with the yellow markings confined 

 to a yellowish patch on each side of the head just behind the eye, and 

 finally the painted turtle in which the shell has red markings around 

 the edges of the shell. The latter is the larger, attaining a length of 

 five inches when adult, the other two not reaching more than four. 

 The first and last are present in the greater part of our State, the 

 raiountain terrapin, in or near the mountain region only. 



Of the larger terrapins we get five species of sliders proper, the 

 long-necked chicken turtle and the diamond-back terrapin, the last 

 being a salt marsh species. 



The sliders are the largest of the group, some of them attaining a 

 length of over a foot in the shell and a weight of ten pounds. The 

 various species inhabit ponds and large streams and are most plentiful 

 in the Mississippi Valley and the southeastern States. 



I cannot say much as to the habits of this group, but of the two 

 species which formerly constituted our Raleigh representatives, one 

 (Pseud oiiys concinna) seemed to be more herbivorous in its habits, 

 and the other (P. scripta), more omnivorous, eating flesh as well as 

 plants. 



The species are keeled when quite young, and the known young of 

 all species with which I am acquainted are beautifulh' variegated with 

 yellow and brown or green. Older specimens lose the keel and much 

 of the color pattern disappears, so that many species look totally dif- 

 ferent when young than when adult. 



The chicken turtle enters our list on account of its being recorded 

 from Beaufort in Barbour and Stegneger's Cheek List, Of the habits 

 of the animal in nature I know nothing but it differs in some respects 

 from all our other turtles. The neck is very long, awkwardly long 

 in fact, the shell is high and narrow, but rounded above, not keeled 

 and the color pattern is a large meshed net work of narrow yellow lines 

 on a brown ground. On dissecting out a specimen another marked dif- 

 ference appears, the free portion of the ribs (between the vertebrae 

 and the costal plates) is long, slender and rounded instead of being 

 short, broad and flat as in all our other turtles. 



The diamond-back terrapin, the terrapin of the restaurants, is a 

 salt marsh species, found only along the coast and may be recognized 

 by the keeled shells and by the concentric lines on each plate from 



