POND- TOR TOISES. 



69 



brown, and the lower black ; all the shields of the latter, as well as the marginal 

 ones of the former, having a large yellow spot. The skin of the head, neck, body, 

 and limbs is marked with yellow and blackish, in varying porportions ; the head 

 of the male having brownish dots on a darker ground, while in the female the dots 

 are yellow. When fully grown, the shell attains a length of 7% inches, but in 

 most of the specimens imported into England it is not much more than half that 

 size. At the present day the pond-tortoise is found, in suitable localities, in South 

 and East Central Europe, and South- Western Asia as far as Persia, and in Algeria. 



European pond-tortoise (f nat. size). 



During the Pleistocene period, when the climate of Northern Europe must at certain 

 times have been much more genial, the pond-tortoise had a much more extensive 

 distribution, its fossilised remains having been found in the superficial deposits of 

 Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Lombardy, Norfolk, Sweden, and Switzerland. The 

 American species, which inhabits the north-eastern United States and Canada, 

 has the carapace rather more elongate, and the tail shorter; the former being 

 black with pale yellow or brownish circular spots, and the plastron yellow with 

 a large black patch on each shield. 



The European species inhabits both stagnant and running waters, and may be 



