The Inhabitants of the Aquarium 223 



nating with greenish black stripes. The 

 plastron or breast-plate is much smaller than 

 the carapace and of a bright orange color, 

 shading toward the edge into bright scarlet. 

 The head is rather short, with two sulphur 

 yellow spots on each side. The neck has 

 regular yellow stripes on the sides and be- 

 low. The tail is long and slender and light 

 red below. Legs and feet are blackish, the 

 latter being armed with sharp claws. The 

 two shells are joined by a strong band and 

 are, therefore, rigid. The markings and 

 coloring vary, not only in specimens of equal 

 size, but also with age, so that older speci- 

 mens do not show at all, or but very faintly, 

 the red triangular spots seen on the mar- 

 ginal plates of the young turtles. 



The Painted Turtles are common in ponds 

 and wet ditches in some localities, but they 

 are very shy and therefore not easy to catch. 

 On warm summer days they can be seen in 

 rows on trees overhanging the water and . 

 close to its surface. They seem to sleep and 



