10 
THE QUAKER TORTOISE. 
The Chicken Tortoise is also found in North America. 
It is very common in the ponds, lakes, or marshy grounds, and though very plentiful, and ‘ 
by no means quick in its movements, is not easily caught, owing to its extreme wariness. 
Hundreds of these Tortoises may be seen reposing on logs, stones, or the branches of fallen 
trees, where they are apparently an easy prey. But they are very sensitive to the approach of 
an enemy, and the first that perceives the coming danger tumbles off its perch and falls into 
the water with a great splash that arouses the fears of all its companions, which go tumbling and 
splashing into the water in all directions, and in a few seconds not a Tortoise is to be seen 
where they were so plentiful before they took alarm. 
The Chicken Tortoise swims well, but not rapidly, and as it passes along with its head and 
neck elevated above the surface, it looks so like the dark water-snake of the same country, 
that at a little distance it might readily be mistaken for that reptile. 
LETTERED TORTOISE .— Emys scripta. CHICKEN TORTOISE. —Emys retlcularta. 
It is rather a small species, seldom exceeding ten inches in length. Its flesh is remark- 
ably excellent, very tender and delicately flavored, something like that of a young chicken, so 
that this Tortoise is in great request as an article of food, and is largely sold in the markets, 
though not so plentifully as the common salt-water terrapin. Its color is dark brown abov e, 
and the plates are scribbled with yellow lines, and wrinkled longitudinally. The neck is long 
in proportion to the size of the animal, so long, indeed, that the head and neck together are 
almost as long as the shell. The lower jaw is hooked in front. 
An allied species, popularly called the Quaker Tortoise, and scientifically Emys olro- 
acea, is remarkable for the extreme length of the claws of the fore feet, the three middle claws 
being elongated in a manner that irresistibly reminds the observer of the nails belonging to a 
Chinese mandarin of very high rank. 
