126 EMYS TROOSTII. 



Habits. I am not aware that the Emys Troostii differs in its habits from the 

 other animals of its tribe. 



General Remarks. It is remarkable that the animal from which the accom- 

 panying figure was taken had six vertebral plates, and that apparently not the 

 result of injury. Another specimen possessed the usual nmnber, and the shell 

 was broader in proportion. 



Schlegel,* an excellent hcrpetologist of Leyden, who probably never saw this 

 animal, supposes it identical with the Einys rugosa, (Shaw,) as published by 

 Cocteau in the herpetological part of Lasagra's "Histoire de I'Isle de Cuba,"t 

 from which, however, it is perfectly distinct. I have now before me a specimen 

 of the Emys rugosa, given me by Mr. Bell, as well as the Emys Troostii; they 

 are about the same length, yet the shell of the former has nearly twice the eleva- 

 tion of the latter; the one is as arched as the Emys serrata, while the other is 

 the most depressed of all our terrapins, with the exception perhaps of the Emys 

 Oregoniensis. Besides, the shell of the Emys rugosa is strongly carinated, and, 

 as its name imports, deeply marked with longitudinal wrinkles, while the Emys 

 Troostii is flattened along the vertebral hne, and the shell is perfectly smooth, 

 with the exception of some slight wrinkles on the most inferior part of the lateral 

 plates. 



* Revue-Zoologique, No. xii., 1S38, p. 319. t Rev., table ii. 



