CLASS REPTILIA 



545 



its eggs. The limbs are modified as flippers for swimming. 

 The flesh is not used for food. 



Family Chelydid^e. — This is one of the families of turtles, 

 the members of which bend the neck laterally. They are all 

 fresh-water, semiaquatic species and are found in South America, 

 Australia, and New Guinea. 



Family Trionychid^e. — Soft-shelled Turtles. — The six 

 genera and about twenty-four species belonging to this family 

 inhabit fresh- water ponds and streams in various parts of North 

 America, Africa, Asia, and the East Indies. The four species 

 occurring in North America are members of the genus Trionyx. 

 They are thoroughly aquatic and have large, strongly webbed 

 feet. The body is flat; the neck is long and very flexible; 

 the nose terminates in a small proboscis ; and the shell is leathery 

 without shields, and with only a few scattered bones. 



Trionyx ferox (Fig. 449) is the southern soft-shelled turtle 

 of North America, occurring in muddy-bottomed streams and 



Fig. 440. — The soft-shelled turtle, Trionyx ferox. (From Gadow.) 



ponds of Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana. In the Central 

 United States the common species is the spiny soft-shelled turtle, 

 Trionyx spinifer. These turtles are voracious and carnivorous, 



2 N 



