38 TORTOISES, TERRAPINS, AND TURTLES 



praised. At the same time, as reptiles go (for human food), 

 its flesh is really very good; but, with all the good things 

 that go into a terrapin stew, and champagne for sauce at 

 four-fifty a bottle, almost any animal would taste good. 



The Diamond-Back Terrapin is a habitant of salt water, 

 and at one time was found in the shallow bays and salt marshes 

 along our Atlantic and Gulf coast from Massachusetts to 

 Texas. Chesapeake Bay has always been a sort of centre 

 of abundance of this species, and when it flourished the 

 markets were supplied chiefly from the region lying between 

 New York and Pamlico Sound. 



This Terrapin is small, rather flat, rounded in outline, 

 and its scales are marked by independent black patterns com- 

 posed of many geometric flgures, placed one within another. 

 A specimen with a plastron 7 inches long, and weighing 

 a pound is a large one. Formerly the great majority meas- 

 ured between 4 and 5 inches; but now it is difficult to find 

 one large enough to make a "count" by the old standard. 

 A "count" Terrapin must measure 5 inches (in some markets 

 it is 6 inches) in the length of the lower shell. 



Beyond reasonable doubt, the continual destruction of 

 the largest specimens will ere long render the species unpro- 

 ductive, and it will cease to exist. The persistent destruc- 

 tion of fathers and mothers will soon wipe out the strongest 

 species in existence. It is reported, however, that in the 

 South there are several terrapin "farms" on which this spe- 

 cies is being bred and reared for the markets in large numbers. 



