A REVISION OF MALACLHMMYS, A CHNUS OF TURTLHS. 



By WILLIAM PERRY HAY, 

 Professor of Natural History \ Howard University. 



INTRODUCTION. 



During the .summers of 1902 and L903 the writer was engaged in conducting a 

 scries of experiments for the Bureau of Fisheries with the object of determining the 

 life history of the diamond-hack terrapin and its adaptability to artificial propaga- 

 tion. The field of work covered Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers, but the 

 major portion of the time was spent at Solomons Island, a small town at the mouth of 

 the Patuxent River, and at Crisfield, Maryland, the well-known oyster, crab, and 

 terrapin depot on the " Eastern Shore." Both of these localities afford excellent facil- 

 ities for study not only of the terrapin native to Chesapeake waters, but of those from 

 other localities as well, for certain residents of these towns are extensively engaged 

 in impounding the animals to fatten them for market, for this purpose buying them 

 wherever they can be obtained. There have thus been brought together collections of 

 diamond-back terrapin which are unsurpassed by the collections in any museum, and 

 which have the added advantage of containing living instead of dead specimens. 



In addition to the observations in these localities, the. markets of Baltimore ami 

 Washington have been carefully watched; and the Bureau of Fisheries, through its 

 agents in various southern cities, has secured a number of interesting specimens, 

 from which the accompanying color drawings have been made. Through the courtesy 

 of the American Museum of Natural History 1 have been enabled to study the terra- 

 pin in that collection, including types of Maximilian's Em.ys pileata; and the speci- 

 mens in the Tinted States National Museum were also placed at my disposal, through 

 the kindness of Doctor Stejneger, who has assisted me in many ways. 



An extensive series of photographs made by the writer from the living animals 

 furnishes a part of the illustrations accompanying this paper. The remaining plates 

 are taken from photographs by Mr. R. F. Coker, of the Beaufort (\ T . C.) laboratory 

 of the Bureau of Fisheries, and from color drawings by Miss E. A. Woodbury; to 

 whom, and to the dealers in terrapin who assisted me in my work, I return grateful 

 acknowledgment, with especial thanks to Mr. J. C. Webster, of Solomons, Maryland, 

 and Messrs. I. H. Tawes, J. H. Riggin, and A. T. Lavallette, of (Yislield. who 

 allowed me to prosecute investigations at their pounds and to study the shipments 

 of terrapin as received. 



