1'28 Species of North American Tortoises. 



second, third and fourth quadrangular, or slightly hexagonal, the 

 fifth pentagonal: lateral plates marked near the base with 

 concentric striae, the first triangular with its apex truncate, and 

 lower face rounded, the rest quadrangular with their lower 

 faces slightly curved, the upper faces not angled ; marginal 

 plates oblong, the posterior ones widened, the intermediate 

 very narrow, the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth projecting beyond 

 each other so as to form three obtuse teeth on each side. Ster- 

 num small, narrow, lozenge-shaped, pointed and entire at both 

 ends, and with the marginal plates beneath yellowish, wings 

 narrow, five or six-sided, supplementary plates triangular, 

 interposed between the wings and the marginal plates of the 

 shell ; scapular plates small, triangular ; brachial plates trian- 

 gular, their apices rounded ; pectoral five-sided, the exterior 

 posterior side small ; abdominal plates wanting ; femoral sub- 

 quadrangular ; caudal narrow, triangular. Head, neck, and 

 limbs very large : skin above granulate, dusky, beneath warty, 

 cinereous, or dirty white, or yellowish. Eyes brown, with a 

 black line through the middle ; jaws hooked, varied with yel- 

 lowish brown and dusky, top of the head scaly ; chin with two 

 prominent warts : fore legs with five rows of sharp and broad 

 scales, those on the hinder edge the largest ; hind legs with 

 six or seven large and broad scales beneath ; tail scaly, very 

 long, crested with six or seven prominences ; claws 5-4. 

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



Length of the shell twelve inches, height four inches and a 

 half. 



Length of the tail eight inches and four-fifths. 



The young ones have the concentric lines on the plates more 

 distinct: the vertebral and lateral plates are each furnished 

 with an obtuse projection, so that the shell is tricarinate, these 

 projections are marked with raised lines which radiate for- 

 wards, and on the lateral plates are wider and more pro- 

 minent. 



