2430 



TORTOISES, TURTLES, AND PLESIOSAURS 



Painted 



Terrapin 



sliders are brought to Baltimore from the James river. The terrapin catchers make 

 from five to twenty dollars per week, and they find the reptile or 'bird,' as the 

 bon vivant calls it, by probing the mud in the shallows with sticks. The terrapin 

 is dormant, and when found is easily secured. A four-pound terrapin taken about 

 September 15 will exist prosperously in a dark, cool place, without food or drink, 

 until April 15, and (the dealers say) will gain two ounces in weight. After that 

 time it gets lively and active, and will take hold of a finger with great effusion 

 and effectiveness. The male terrapin is known as a 'bull,' and the female as a 

 'cow.' The latter is much more highly prized, and generally contains about 

 thirty eggs. No dish of terrapin is thought complete without being garnished 

 with these." Formerly caught in shoals, the diamond back has now become 

 very scarce, and is, indeed, in some danger of extermination. The terrapin 

 furnished in hotels is almost invariably "sliders," diamond backs being sold to 

 private houses only. 



The seven remaining genera of the family constitute a distinct 

 group, distinguished from the one including the six genera just men- 

 tioned by the circumstance that the broad front portion of the palate 

 of the skull is marked by one or two longitudinal ridges, and likewise by all the 

 species being mainly or exclusively herbivorous in their diet. Among these, 



the large and exclusively 

 American genus Chrysemys, 

 with a dozen species, of which 

 the painted terrapin ( C. picta ) 

 is one of the best known, 

 belongs to a subgroup of three 

 genera, characterized by the 

 bony buttresses connecting the 

 upper with the lower shell 

 being short or of moderate size. 

 From its allies Chrysemys is 

 distinguished by the opening 

 of the posterior nostrils being 

 situated between the eyes, and 

 by the entoplastral bone being 

 situated in advance of the 

 groove on the plastron formed 

 by the juution of the humeral 



with the pectoral shields. The painted terrapin of Eastern North America, which 

 attains a length of six inches, and has a much depressed shell, takes its name 

 from its brilliant coloration. Thus, the carapace is olive or blackish, with yellow 

 lines bordering the shields, and its marginal shields red, with black concentric 

 or crescentic markings; while the plastron is yellow, sometimes with small streaks 

 of black on the middle line, and the bridge red, with black markings. The soft 

 parts have a brown or blackish ground color, with lighter bands, which are yellow 

 on the head 'and red elsewhere. 



PAINTED TERRAPIN. 



