SPECKLED OR SPOTTED TORTOISE 661 



Nanemys GfUTTATUS. Schneider. 



Speckled or Spotted Tortoise. 



Testudo guttata, Schneider, Shaw. 



Teatudo punctata, Schneider, Schcepff, Latrkillbj, Daudin, LeContb. 



Emya punctata, Mbrrem, Say, Harlan, Kirtland. 



Emya guttata, Schwkiggek, Houbrook, Storek, Gray, DeKat, Ddmeril and BiBRoit. 



Clemys punctata, Wagler. 



Chelopus guttatus, Cope. 



Kanemys guttatus, Agassiz, Jordan. 



Color of carapax black, with here and there an isolated round or nearly round yellow 

 spot; plastron yellow, with more or less black, sometimes almost or entirely black; 

 marginal plates yellow, or yellow and black beneath; head, neck, and chin brown or 

 black, with reddish-yellow spots ; feet dark colored, reddish or yellowish beneath ; 

 marginal plates twenty -five, nuchal narrow, elongated ; first vertebral pentagonal, the 

 anterior margins shorter ; last neural septagoual, rarely hexagonal, the remaining ver- 

 tebral shields neaily hexagonal ; costals four, the first, second, and third largest; costal 

 and vertebral plates alternating ; a groove in the plastron and carapax in front for the 

 neck ; gular shields triangular, the remaining sternals with four sides ; plastron behind 

 broadly notched, carapax nearly or quite entire; sternal shields often with concentric 

 atrisB. Length of carapax, 5 inches ; height of carapax. If inches ; length of tail, 1 J. 



Habitat, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, to Michigan 

 and Indiana. 



Agassiz states that this species "does not extend south of North 

 Carolina, nor west of New York and Pennsylvania," but the Museum of 

 Michigan University contains a specimen taken in Ionia county, 

 Michigan, by Prof. J. B. Steere; it has also been found at Ann Arbor, and 

 Dr. Levette of the Indiana Geological Survey reports it as occurring in 

 the northern part of that State. Dr. Kirtland reports it as rare in Ohio, and 

 hence, though not having myself seen it, I think, without question, it 

 should be included in the fauna of the State. 



The Spotted Turtle frequents sluggish streams, pondg, and ditches 

 with muddy bottom, but I have never seen them where the water itself 

 was muddy, I have observed them in New York inhabiting the same 

 ponds as Chrysemya picta, and about as numerous. They never left the 

 water except to lay their eggs, which they did in June or July. They 

 were frequently observed sitting upon the edges of ponds and upon logs, 

 but in all cases plunged suddenly when approached. They go into 

 winter quarter in the fall by burying themselves in mud. The yellow 

 spots are very characteristic and appear earlier than the lungs or family 

 characters. 



Gekcs GRAPTEMYS. Agassiz. 

 Head, neck, and feet rather slender ; upper mandible curved, sometimes with a bare 

 tiace of a notch at the apex, lower jaw with a spoon-shaped dilatation ; carapax de- 



