161 



plastron are bordered with dark brown. On the carapace, within the 

 areas thus formed, there may be a little black in splotches. Or this may 

 increase in amount until nearly the whole scute is covered. This is es- 

 pecially true on the hinder half of the shell. On the plastron, besides 

 the dark margin, each scute may have a central spot of black, and this 

 by expanding may occupy most of the surface. This is also more likely 

 to be the case on the hinder end of the plastron. On each of the two 

 anterior scutes there is an eyelike spot, consisting of a circle of black in- 

 closing another of the same color. The yellow of the plastron is to a 

 considerable extent replaced by red. The soft skin of the head and up- 

 per side of neck is olive or dusky, varied with numerous fine anastomosing 

 lines of pale yellow. At the back of the eye a stripe begins and runs 

 back on the neck. This stripe is bright red, not well defined along the 

 edges, but seeming to run into the surrounding dark color. In some 

 cases the whole of the back of the head is red. The feet, legs, tail and 

 lower side of the neck are ornamented with broad yellow or green stripes. 



The length of the shell may reach 9 inches, probably more. 



Mississippi River and its tributaries from the Gulf to Northern Mis- 

 souri. It has been sent to the National Museum from Wheatland, Ind., 

 by Mr. Robert Ridgway, to whom we are indebted for knowledge of 

 many rare reptiles of this State. 



This is a very beautiful and a characteristically marked species. It 

 may readily be distinguished from C. elegans by the brown borders of all 

 the scutes, and the absence of yellow stripes on the carapace. Both have 

 a blood-red stripe along the neck. 



Habits. — Little is known, beyond the fact that it is aquatic. It pre- 

 sents a good subject for study to herpetologists who live on the lower 

 reaches of the Wabash. 



Chrysemys elegans, (Wied). 

 Elegant Terrapin. 



Emys elegans, Wied, 1839, 6S, i, 213 ; Trachemys elegans, Agassiz, 1857, 

 4-, i, 435, pi. iii, figs. 9-11; Pseudemys elegans, Cope, 1875, 13, 53; 

 Chrysemys scripta, var. elegans, Boulenger, 1889, 84-, 78. 



Shell broad and depressed, the young with a moderate keel, which dis- 

 appears in the adults. Carapace serrated behind ; a slight emargination 

 in each scute and deeper ones between them. Surface of the costal 

 scutes smooth or sometimes slightly wrinkled longitudinally. Nuchal 

 scute very narrow. Plastron with its posterior border with a broad shal- 

 low notch ; the width of the hinder lobe being hardly two-thirds the 

 width of the carapace. Bridge wide, rising rapidly to the margin of the 

 carapace. Longest suture of the plastron that between the abdominals, 

 11 



