114 Species of North American Tortoises. 



some of them rather inclining to the pentagonal form, those 

 near the tail sometimes a little revolute. Chest emarginate 

 behind, yellow, the plates marked with concentric striae, and 

 slightly varied with concentric lines of dusky, seldom more 

 than two on each plate ; scapular plates triangular ; brachial 

 plates obliquely four-sided, the exterior lateral face rounded ; 

 the rest quadrangular ; marginal plates beneath yellow with a 

 duskyish irregularly shaped ring, and frequently a black spot 

 in the centre of each ; wings marked in the same manner ; 

 supplementary plates frequently wanting. Skin cinereous, 

 spotted with dusky. Irids the color of the skin; pupils 

 black. Legs and tail scaly ; feet palmate, five-toed ; claws 

 5-4. 



Plates of the margin twenty-five ; of the sternum twelve. 



Length seven inches, height two inches and three-quarters. 



a. Smooth, with very few concentric striae. Shell above 

 gray, with concentric marks of black on each plate. Sternum 

 yellow, spots on the skin larger. 



/3, Dark brown somewhat varied with black ; lateral and 

 marginal plates more or less marked with concentric striae ; 

 vertebral plates smooth. 



y. With concentric striae on all the plates, and black concen- 

 tric marks on some of them. 



It is unaccountable how this species has lost the very appro- 

 priate name given to it by Linnaeus, when there could have 

 been no doubt respecting it. It is found from New- York to 

 Florida, and even in the West Indies, in salt water "and always 

 in the neighbourhood of marshes. As an article of food it is 

 much preferred to every other species, particularly when dug 

 out of the marshes in a torpid state ; immense numbers of 

 them are annually brought to market. The males are smaller, 

 and have the concentric striae more deeply impressed than the 



