EMYS LUTARIA. 
format, a mari tam parum remotam, ut hujus accessus et recessus in illa ani¬ 
madverti possit. Hic vivat animal, et cum homines ad propinquantes audiat, 
repente saltando quasi in aquam salit. Agile est, et ambulans sive natans, 
caudam exserit, et collum in altum tollit; resupinatum in marte proprio, cele¬ 
riter resurgit, et interdum vocem tenuissimam edit. Degit quoque in His¬ 
pania.” 
This Author is mistaken in considering Testudo scripta of Schoepff, as the 
young of this species; it is undoubtedly the young of Emys serrata. 
This animal varies considerably at different periods of life, and, as it would 
appear, also from climate and other local circumstances. When very young, 
the head, neck and feet are marked with reddish lines and dots, which become 
yellow as the animal reaches the adult period; and there are also at that time 
red markings on the dorsal and marginal plates, which become obsolete 
and at length wholly disappear. In the oldest specimens there is no marking 
whatever upon the shell, which is of a dirty greenish olive colour. In the 
Asiatic specimens, as we see from Wagler’s figure, the yellow lines are brighter 
and larger than in others. 
There is a peculiarity in many individuals which almost entitles them 
to he considered as a distinct variety; this is a rugose state of the dorsal 
plates, with three distinct carinae, —one along the middle of the vertebral 
plates, and one on each side on the upper part of the dorsal. These charac¬ 
ters always exist in a greater or less degree in the young animal; but I have 
also several specimens of adult age in which it still continues very strongly 
marked. Mr. Gray has given a representation of a shell in this state, in his 
Synopsis. 
The sternum is no less liable to variation. In some it is pale greenish or 
olive, clouded with yellow; in others, it is almost wholly black; and there are 
others with almost every intermediate shade and hue. 
