98 COPEIA 



Why this species remains confined only to cer- 

 tain ponds of a large number which are situated in 

 Plymouth County, and why this locality is so isolated 

 from the rest of its range, are questions which re- 

 quire further study. The fact remains that this ter- 

 rapin is an interesting addition to the fauna of Mass- 

 achusetts. 



H. L. Babcock, 



Boston, Mass. 



[Director Frederic A. Lucas, of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, with whom the editor 

 has frequently discussed the occurrence of Pse ti- 

 de mys at Plymouth, has kindly furnished the follow- 

 ing notes.— J. T. N.] 



OCCURRENCE OF PSEUDEMYS AT PLY- 

 MOUTH, MASS. 



Haying been the first, so far as I am aware, to 

 recognize the occurrence of Pseudemys rubriventris 

 at Plymouth, Mass., I am glad of the opportunity 

 to present a few notes in regard to the species. 



In 1869 I found the carapace of what I now 

 know to be this species lying by the roadside on Spar- 

 row's Hill, about half a mile from Billington Sea. 

 At the time I was acquainted only with the local spe- 

 cies of turtles and simply recognized the carapace as 

 belonging to some species that I had never seen, but 

 suggestive of a huge "snake" turtle (the local name 

 for the Painted Terrapin). 



From 1869 to 1905 I saw very little of Ply- 

 mouth. On September 15, 1905, I took two fully 

 grown females of Pseudemys rubriventris in Upper 

 West Pond. They were fighting and held on to each 

 other so tenaciously that they allowed themselves to 

 be taken into the boat with my landing net and did 

 not let go for some time. As a matter of record, one 

 of these specimens was sent to the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology and one to the U. S. National Mus- 



