Species of North American Tortoises. 10'< 



Emys reticulata. Say, Joum. Acad. Nat. Sciences, Philad. 

 Vol. IV. Part 2. 



Shell oval, smooth, ecarinate, emarginate behind, brownish 

 dusky, varied w^ith differently formed and placed lines of yel- 

 low, those on the lateral plates somewhat reticulate, the spaces 

 formed by them frequently filled with short hnes of yellow, 

 all of them more or less confluent. First vertebral plate hex- 

 agonal, the second, third and fourth likewise hexagonal, the 

 lateral angles projecting out very far ; the fourth less oblong 

 than the rest, the fifth heptagonal, much broader behind ; the 

 first, second, and tliird lateral plates five-sided, the fourth quad- 

 rangular : marginal plates all marked either with a straight line, 

 or a subquadrangle of yellow ; the intermediate one small, ob- 

 long, the first projecting a little beyond the second and some- 

 what pentagonal, the rest more or less square or oblong, the 

 ninth, tenth, and eleventh each projecting on its posterior face 

 beyond the succeeding one. Sternum emarginate behind, and 

 with the marginal plates beneath yellow, each of the latter 

 with a large black spot at the junction ; wings with a black lon- 

 gitudinal line confluent with the spots on the marginal plates 

 opposite to them, scapular plates triangular; brachial plates 

 triangulEu: with the apices truncate ; the rest more or less oblong 

 or square. Skin black, head and neck striped with orange* 

 the stripe on the side of the neck bifm'cate on the fore part, 

 one branch running to the eye the other to the cliin, so that 

 the jaw is embraced between them ; stripe on the chin bifur- 

 cating posteriorly a short distance from its origin, and running 

 along the throat, including a shorter one between its branches ; 

 jaws striped with yellow, the upper one slightly emarginate. 



Eyes yellow, vnth a broad black stripe through the middle. 



Legs and tail scaly ; fore legs above striped with yellow, be- 

 neath with three transverse and two longitudinal lines of the 

 same ; hind legs above obscurely striped with red, beneath ir- 

 regularly marked with orange or yellow. Tail above striped 



