9 2 



TORTOISES AND TURTLES. 



by mistaking the appendages on the neck for plants or animals on which they feed. 

 The matamata is, however, stated to capture some of its prey by swimming swiftly 

 among water-plants, diving immediately that a fish or frog is seized in its beak. 

 In captivity this tortoise is sluggish, frequently dying after a few weeks through 

 refusal to feed. 



Snake-Necked The snake-necked tortoises, of which there are two South American 



Tortoises, species (Hydromedusa maximiliani and tectifera), agree with the 



matamata in their long necks and weak jaws, but differ in their smooth shell, the 



absence of a proboscis to the nose, and the presence of only four claws on each 



SNAKE-NECKED TORTOISE (J nat. size). 



foot the matamata having five claws on the fore-feet and four on the hinder pair. 

 The flattened shell in the young state has an interrupted median ridge, and presents 

 the unique peculiarity that the broad nuchal shield of the carapace is placed behind 

 the first pair of marginals (which consequently meet in the middle line), and thus 

 simulates a sixth vertebral shield. The figured species (H. tectifera), which ranges 

 from Southern Brazil to Buenos Aires, has a shell measuring about 8 inches in 

 length, and its feet largely webbed. In colour, the carapace is dark brown and the 

 plastron yellowish, with brown spots in the young ; the head and neck being olive, 

 with a curved white streak on each side of the throat, and a broader white band, 

 edged with black, running along the sides of head and neck. 



