664 REPTILES — EMYDID^. 



This is a very beautiful Turtle, the markings varying conRiderably, 

 and the young being more brilliant than the adult. They iuhabit still, 

 never running water, occurring in ponds and muddy places, where they 

 may be seen setting upon the banks or upon logs, but plunging suddenly, 

 if approached. They are decidedly aquatic animals, and are unable to 

 survive many days, if removed from the water. They are timid and in- 

 offensive, emit a piping note ; and after attaining her eleventh year the 

 female, in a June evening, digs a perpendicular hole in which she deposits 

 her elliptical eggs. 



Cheysemys maeginata Agassiz. 



l.ady Turtle or Ag:assiz Turtle. 



CTirysemys margivata, Agassiz. 



Cltryumya 6i Uii, Gkay. 



Chrysemys pieia, var. marginata, Cope, Jordan. 



Color above of carapai varying from bronze green to brown, nenally with a narrow 

 vertebral line of yellow margined with black; anterior margin of each plate usually 

 with a similar line ; second or third costal at times with a bright yellow or red spot; 

 marginal plates brown to black; with various yellow or red markings ; head brownish, 

 with yellow spots or lines; neck, legs, and tail with red lines; plastron yellow, with a 

 central dark blotch; carapax flatter, broader, and more rounded than in Chrysemys 

 picta; vertebral and costal plates alternating, never forming transverse rows of three 

 each ; first neural quadrangular, with siuuous sides, last heptagonal, the lower sides 

 shorter; the three central vertebral shields hexagonal; lateral margin of costal, first 

 and last neural thields often with parallel ridges ; plastron with the gular and anal 

 plates triangular, the remainder quadrilateral; abdominal the broadest, and pectoraJ 

 narrowest. Length of carapax, 6 inches ; height of carapax, SJ inches ; tail to anus, 1 J. 



Habitat, New York T, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri. 



This species seems to replace Chrysemys picta in the west, and in 

 Michigan it is quite common, while picta is very rare, if at all. In Ohio, 

 picta is found occasionally in the eastern part of the State, never so 

 far as I know in the west, while marginata occurs in the western por^ 

 tion. 



A specimen before me from Waterloo, New York, which from general 

 appearance I take to be a variety of Chrytemys marginata, has six costal 

 shields on one side and seven on the other. It has in the center of the 

 carapax, apparently a large vertebral plate, replaced by four small ones, 

 in addition to which it has five, the normal number, median dorsal 

 shields; the four central plates are arranged in pairs of unequal size, the 

 posterior one on the right side being much the smaller. Such an 

 abnormality I do not find recorded of any turtle. 



This species and 0. picta are about equally abundant in Ohio, and 



