^18 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [10:6— Sept.. 1914 



siasm in the month of May when the birds have returned. Spring 

 flowers are to be had in abundance and everything is "budding 

 new," but the fall and -v^inter months may be made full with delight 

 as well. 



"If thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep 

 Thy heart from fainting, and thy soul from sleep, 

 Go to the woods and hills." — Longfellow. 



"While I live, I trust I shall have my trees, my peaceful landscapes, my fine 

 country life, and while I possess so much, I shall own 100,000 shares in the 

 Bank of Contentment." — Ruskin. 



Rare Deformity in a Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picla), 

 With Notes on the Species 



By R. W. Shufeldt, C. M. Z. S. 



In the course of my life I presume I have seen at least some six 

 or seven thousand living specimens of the North American Painted 

 Turtle {Chrysemys picta), and not a few museum examples. 

 Among all these I have never met with a single one that presented 

 any kind of congenital physical deformity. As we all know, we 

 frequently meet with mutilated individuals, that is, healed mutila- 

 tions, the results of traumatism. Cases of teratology are also, 

 though very rarely, met with, such as examples having two heads, 

 or two tails, and similar abnormalities. 



A case of this sort was described by me several years ago for a 

 species of Box Tortoise {Terrapene Carolina) occurring in eastern 

 United States.^ 



Such abnormalities do not belong, however, in the same category 

 with the case here to be described, although examples of either are 

 of the greatest possible rarity, and fully deserving of description 

 and record. 



Mr. Edward S. Schmid, of Washington, D. C, is the proprietor 

 of an animal establishment in that city, and probably disposes of 

 four or five hundred specimens of Chrysemys picta every year. On 

 several occasions I have seen two or three hundred in his aquaria 

 at one time, a fact affording unusual opportunity to make individ- 

 ual comparisons. It is to Mr. Schmid that I am indebted for the 



1 SHUFELDT, R. W. "Double-headed Animals." Western Field, Vol. 8, No. 2. San 

 Francisco, Cal., March. 1906, p. 117, illustrated. 



"Doppelkopfige Erscheinungen in Tierreich," Natur und Haus. 



Jahigang XIV, Heft 11. Berlin, March 1, 1906, pp. 165. 166. Illus. 



