18 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OE FISHERIES. 



marked with dusky; between the upper lip and the black rhomboidal patch on top o! the head and 

 extending from nose to front of eye there is usually a streak of olive. The legs, tail, and soft skin of 

 the body arc nearly black, owing to the great quantity of black spots which practically cover the 

 surface. 



The male is similar to the female, but the crests of the vertebral plates are nearly always kuoli- 

 like, and the size is, of course, much smaller than the adult female. The black marking on the upper 

 lip seems to be constantly present in the male, and has been compared by Maximilian to a moustache. 

 The plastron is nearly always quite strongly clouded with brownish black. 



Maximilian's specimens were received from New Orleans while he was al New Harmony, Indiana. 

 Since then no specimens have been obtained until two years ago, when Dr. II. M. Smith, of the Bureau 

 of Fisheries, received two or three from the same locality. These tit Maximilian's description in every 

 way and place the species on a firm basis. Of the nine specimens mentioned by Maximilian, six seem 

 to have disappeared; the three others are in the collection ot the American Museum of Natural Historj 

 (Nos. 799, 800, 916). No. 916 is labeled in Maximilian's handwriting, " Emys pileata mihi, Emys 

 concenirica var. Dum. et Bibr." The original number of this specimen appears to have been 65; the 

 other two were numbered 66 and 67. The locality as given on the labels is "Texas, New Orleans." 

 The specimens are small, and probably represent males from 5 to 7 years, old. 



It has been possible to examine only three or four specimens of this turtle from the type locality, 

 hut I have seen large numbers of females from Biloxi, Mississippi, and Mobile, Alabama. They appear 

 in the markets under the name of Biloxi terrapin or Gulf terrapin, and, next to the northern form of 

 .1/. centrata, command the highest prices. They are said to be rather tough, however, and according to 

 some opinions are not so delicately flavored as the "genuine ( Ihesapeakes. " In one or two instances 

 among the Mobile specimens there was the faintest possible indication of a large whitish blotch on each 

 plate of the carapace, and subsequent investigation may show that the present species and M. macrospi- 

 lota intergrade at some point on the Florida coast. At present, however, the indications of this are 

 so slight that the two must be regarded as distinct. 



Malaclemmys littoralis, sp. now Pis. VIII, IX, and XII thgs. 2 and 3). 



Type. — 1'. S. Xat. Mus. No. 33913, an adult female from Rockport, Texas, secured at Crisfield, Md., 



in August, 1904, by W. P. Hay. 



Distribution. — Salt marshes and channels along the coast of Texas and outlying islands. 



Characters. — Carapace oval in outline, but of nearly equal width at shoulders and hips, the sides 

 convex, straight, or even slightly concave; notch above the neck usually deeper than in the spi 

 previously described; carapace much more vaulted, greatest height usually farther back than in the 

 other species, being at top of third vertebral plate; marginal plates in front of the bridge blunt at the 

 edges, behind the bridge sharper and rather strongly revolute; margin of carapace rounded just above 

 the bridge, so that the sharp longitudinal ridge, so prominent in all the other species, is almost want- 

 ing; bridge high; plastron narrower proportionally than in the other species; posterior lobe with more 

 convergent sides. Plates covering the shell thin with old age, often becoming so worn away as !<• 

 expose the bone beneath them; plates on the plastron usually quite smooth, on the carapace sometimes 

 smooth, but usually concentrically ridged or roughly pitted. 



Head large, the nose blunt. In the male the carapace is flatter than in the female rnarj 

 plates from near front of the shell backwards strongly revolute; plates of the carapace much pitted. 



The coloration is variable. Of the 250 specimens examined the few males were all dark brown: 

 there were a few females which were almost black, with dark heads, necks, and legs; others wen so 

 light a greenish gray as to appear almost white; the majority, however, were brown, varying from 

 rather light yellowish brown to dusky. The upturned marginal plates in the darker colored individuals 

 were orange, but in light-colored specimens were light greenish gray or nearly white; tin- plastron was 

 usually yellowish, but if the carapace was very light colored, the plastron was nearly white with a fainl 

 greenish tint; the markings on the plates of the carapace were always indistinct, but occasionally there 

 was a faint indication of one or two concentric bands near the centre; usually, however, the plates 

 were only slightly and irregularly clouded, or unmarked. The top of the head was usually dusky, 

 but sometimes white, and the upper lip was white in every individual. The soft skin was everyw here 

 i pn mounced green-gray, but thickly marked and more or less obscured by small, nearly circular, black 

 or brown spots. 



