J36 STERNOTHyERUS ODORATUS. 



The extremities are dusky above, dingy white below. The tail is dark above, 

 and with its under surface coloured like the extremities. 



Dimensions. Length of shell, 3^ inches; greatest breadth, 2 inches 4 lines; 

 elevation, Ij inches; length of sternum, 2 inches 7 lines. 



Habits. The habits of this animal are much like those of the Kinosternon 

 Pennsylvanicum; it chooses slow moving or muddy waters, and is very abundant 

 in the ditches of our rice fields in Carolina, where it feeds on small fish or on 

 smaller reptiles, as the various kinds of tadpoles that inhabit the same localities. 

 It is, however, a much bolder animal than the Kinosternon Pennsylvanicum, and 

 bites very severely if provoked. When taken alive, it emits a strong and 

 disagreeable odour of musk. 



Geographical Distribution. Its geographical range is more extended than 

 that of the last described animal; it is found as far north as the state of Maine, 

 abounds in middle Florida and Alabama, and along the western border of the 

 Alleghany mountains, even as far as the Cumberland river in Tennessee, according 

 to the observations of Troost, and is probably found in all the western states. 



General Remarks. This is evidently the animal described by Schoepfl^, in his 

 Historia Testudinum, as a variety of the Testudo Pennsylvanica, with an 

 immovable sternum. The individual, he says, was sent him by Muhlenberg, of 

 Pennsylvania, together with a specimen of the true Testudo Pennsylvanica, 

 (Kinosternon,) of which he (SchoepfF) believed it to be a variety. 



The next notice of the animal now under consideration, is in the work of 

 Latreille, where it is called Testudo odorata, for the first time by Bosc, who 

 furnished the description, drawn from living specimens that he had observed in 

 Carolina, and the name, no doubt, was given from the odour of musk it emits 

 when alive. Latreille, though he describes the animal on the authority of Bosc, 



