24 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 



GENUS CISTUDA. Fleming. 



Shell gibbous, stout. Marginal plates tiventy-four to twenty-five. Sternum oval, with tivelve 

 plates, bivalve ; both valves movable on the same axis, and connected together by ligament. 

 Anterior feet ivithfive nails ; posterior tvithfour. 



THE COMMON BOX TORTOISE. 



CiSTUDA CAROLINA. 



PLATE 1. FIG. 1. — (STATE COLLECTION.) 



Tesluflo Carolina. L. 12 Ed. p. 352. 



T. claus. ScHCEPFF, Hist. Test. pi. 7. 



Checkered Tortoise. Pexn. Arct. Zool. Supp. p. 79. 



T. clausa el virgiUata. Daud. Hist. Kept. Vol. 2, p. 207, pi. 23, fig. 1, 2. 



Cistuda clausa. Say, Ac. Sc. Vol. 2, p. 205. 



C. Carolina. Le Conte, Ann. Lye. Vol. 3, p. 124. 



C. clausa. Haklan, Med. & Phys. Res. p. 149. 



C. Carolina. DuM. & BiEBON, Vol. 2, p. 210. 



C. id. Storer, Mass. Rep. Holbkook, Herpet. Vol. 3, p. 9, pi. 1 ; and Vol. 1, p. 31, pi. 2, nf Ed. 2da. 



C. clausa. Kirtland, Zool. Report of Oliio, p. 188. 



Characteristics. Shell hemispherical, elevated. Upper jaw hooked. Vertebral plates sub- 

 carinate. Sternum entire behind. Length 5-7 inches. 



Description. Anterior vertebral plate carinate ; the tliree middle vertebral plates hexagonal, 

 sub-carinate ; the fifth pentagonal, smallest. First lateral plate quadrilateral ; the second 

 largest. Marginal plates in this speciiiien, twenty-four ; this is noticed by Merrem as unusual, 

 but I have seen it in three or four specimens. The anterior marginal plate very small, linear. 

 Sternum smooth, entire behind ; the plates on the anterior lid smallest ; scapular and brachial 

 plates triangular ; the others oblong, sub-quadrate. Posterior valve concave, not quite so 

 liexible as the anterior, but sufficiently so as to enclose completely the animal. Fore feet 

 with large and strong scales in front, and smaller ones behind, with short robust claws, of 

 which the two medial were longest. Hind feet also with large scales, and four somewhat 

 longer claws. Head stout, nostrils contiguous with the upper jaw, sometimes emarginate. 

 Neck long. Tail short, conical. 



Color. Shell with a dark brown ground, upon which are numerous irregular stellated marks 

 and dashes, with occasional confluent blotches. Head, neck and extremities of a liglit lemon 

 yellow, with irregular black stripes on the summit of the head. Sternum rosaceous, with 

 broad irregular blotches of black. 



Length of shell, 6'0. 



Breadth, 4-0. 



Height, 2-5. 



