ORDER CHELONIA. 7^ 



It is reared in ponds and gardens, with bread, lettuce, legu- 

 minous plants, &c. J. C. Wulff informs us that the Prus- 

 sian peasants keep these animals in troughs for two years 

 sdtaetimes, for the purpose of fattening them. 



The eggs of this European Emys are about the size of 

 those of a pigeon, but more oblong. The female deposits 

 them in the sand, exposed to the sun, and, according to 

 Marsigli, they take a year before the young are excluded. 



There are several varieties of this Chelonian, one of which, 

 it would appear, inhabits the marshes of Spain. 



The painted Tortoise (Emys picta) is easily distin- 

 guished from the others by the colours which decorate it. 

 It is five inches and a half in length, near four inches in 

 breadth, and an inch and a half in thickness. 



The carapace is oblong, convex, and smooth, without any 

 appearance of furrow or points. Its plates, thirteen in num- 

 ber, are almost all quadrangular, except the three anterior, 

 and two of the vertebral range, the angles of which are 

 obtuse, and the sutures furrowed. 



The edge of the carapace is trenchant, except upon the 

 flanks, and it is composed of twenty -five plates. The breast- 

 plate (plastron) is as long as the carapace : its form is oblong. 

 The two plates of the neck are rounded, and the two caudal 

 ones truncated. All the plates, to the number of tw^elve, are 

 marked with a stria, so that one might believe that these 

 plates were eighteen. 



The feet and tail, Avhich is short, are covered with scales : 

 the former are slightly palmated. 



The general colour of this tortoise is brownish, deeper on 

 the head and limbs. All the plates of the carapace are bor- 

 dered with yellowish ; so that the animal appears marked 

 above with broad bands, which cross each other. The mar- 

 ginal plates are yellowish, with irregular and blackish con- 

 centric circles. The plastron is of a yellov/ish grey. On the 



