22 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 
tubercles on the under side of the leg. Hind legs with four claws ; the fifth toe distinct, but 
clawless. Tail short, very robust at base, and terminating in a stout blunt horny point; the 
sides of the tail with from four to six series of short tubercular processes, which are likewise 
numerous around the vent. 
Color. Shell olive brown. Sternum yellow or orange and darker, occasionally black in 
the vicinity of the sutures. Head brownish, with irregular lines, streaks and spots of a lighter 
color, which also extend to the sides of the neck. Irides dark brown. Feet and tail dusky 
brown; beneath lighter. 
“otalilength;s-s.2cf.2c: 2 << 6:0. Length of the tail, -..--- 0°6. 
Ditto of the shell,....... 4:0. Fler cht; qc eects ere 1°8. 
New-Jersey has hitherto been considered as the highest eastern limit of this species ; but 
it is (although sparingly) found in the southern counties of this State, west of the Hudson. 
I find no mention of it in Storer’s Report on the Reptiles of Massachusetts, although it is 
cited in Hitchcock’s Catalogue. It extends to Florida, and I presume through the Western 
States. It inhabits ditches and muddy ponds, and often takes the hook. It preys on fish and 
the smaller aquatic reptiles. Like the odoratus, it has a strong musky smell, and it cannot 
readily be confounded with any known species. 
GENUS STERNOTHARUS. Bell. 
Head sub-quadrangular, pyramidal in front, covered in front with a single plate. Warts 
on the chin. Twenty-three marginal plates. Sternum cruciform, bivalve, anterior valve 
only movable. Supplemental plates contiguous, placed on the sterno-costal suture. 
THE MUSK TORTOISE. 
STERNOTHERUS ODORATUS. 
PLATE VII. FIG. 13.—(STATE COLLECTION.) 
Testudo pensylvanica. Scucprr, Hist. Test. p. 110. 
T. odorante. Lat. Hist. Rep. Vol. 1, p. 122. 
T. odorata. Davpin, Hist. Reptiles, Vol. 2, p. 189, pl. 24, fig. 3. (Sternum.) 
Cistuda odorata. Say, Ac. Sc. Nat. Vol. 4, p. 206 and 216. 
Sternotherus. BExu, Zool. Jour. p. 209. Mi 
Kinosternon odorata. Gray, Synops. apud Griffith, Vol. 9, p. 13. 
Terrapene id. Merrem, Syst. Amphib. p. 27. 
Testudo id. LE Conte, Ann. Lyc. Vol. 3, p. 122. 
Sternotherus id. Harwan, Med. and Phys. p. 156. 
Kinosternum id. Bon. Oss. p. 169. Chelon. Tab. analyt. 
Staurotypus id. Dom. et Bra. Vol. 2, p. 358. 
Sternotherus id. Storer, Mass. Report, p. 210. 
Sternotherus id. Hoxrsrook, N. Am. Herpetology, Vol. 3, p. 29, pl. 4; and Vol. 1, p. 133, pl. 22 of 2d Ed. 
Characteristics. Very small. Shell gibbous, subcarinate ; first vertebral plate pointed behind. 
Small, brownish, with darker radiating streaks on a dark olive green 
ground. A disagreeable odor. Length 34 inches. 
