208 REPTILES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



The sternal plates are yellowish, with large black blotches, 

 or black with yellowish blotches, or uniformly black. Some- 

 times the plates of the sternum are perfectly smooth, at other 

 times marked with concentric strias. The top of the head, 

 and upper part of the legs, black with yellow spots. 



It feeds upon insects, worms and frogs. 



E. picta. Schneider. The painted Tortoise. 



Shaw's Gen. Zoology, vol. iii. pt. 1. p. 45, et fig. 

 Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y. vol. iii. p. 115. 

 Hail. Med. and Phys. Res. p. 151. 

 Dum. et Bibr. Hist. Nat. des Kept. torn. ii. p. 297. 

 N. A. Herpet. vol. ii. p. 19, et fig. 



Next to the "^w^/ato," this is the most generally distributed 

 species. It is usually found with the preceding, and is a very 

 easily recognised species. A specimen five inches in length, 

 serves for the following description : 



Body above, compressed ; upper shell, greenish brown, with 

 the edges of the dorsal and lateral plates margined with yel- 

 low. A very narrow dorsal yellow line passes from the ante- 

 rior to the posterior marginal plate ; the marginal plates are 

 darker colored than the other plates of the upper shell, having 

 in their centre a bright red blotch, which is much larger upon 

 the inferior side ; and over this blotch, one or two red mark- 

 ings, which are concentric upon the plates not attached to the 

 sternum, and nearly straight upon the four plates which are 

 thus attached ; the red color predominates upon the under side 

 of the marginal plates. 



First dorsal plate quadrangular : second and fourth, hexago- 

 nal ; third, quadrangular ; fifth, heptagonal. 



Sternal plates yellow, with a triangular ribbon upon the an- 

 terior portion, and a straight one upon the middle and posterior 

 portions, of a brighter tint. 



Back of the head, dark brown ; directly back of the eyes, a 

 broad yellow band ; a narrower band of the same color runs 



