160 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
Now every man’s hand is against them, and the tremendous price 
they bring makes one or two terrapin ample compensation for a 
week of hard work. Large terrapin from 6 to 8 inches long bring 
the fabulous price of from $60 to $85 a dozen in the New York 
market. As a natural consequence the terrapin is rare. 
In 1895, although I was constantly on the lookout for them 
and spent the entire summer at Wareham on the head waters of 
Buzzard’s Bay, I did not see more than a dozen terrapin. One of 
these, a very fine large one, I caught; it is now in the Museum 
of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge. 
Mr. Geo. F. Tyler, of East Wareham, has sent me this winter 
nine specimens taken in the head waters of Buzzard’s Bay, and Dr. 
Maurice II. Richardson sent me two from Eastham, on Cape Cod. 
This fine series Mr. Garrnan and I compared with the large collection 
of terrapin in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, from localities 
on the Atlantic Coast from Washington, D. C., to Florida, and from 
Mobile, Ala. We thought that perhaps this northern terrapin might 
differ from the southern one. After careful study we came to the 
conclusion that the terrapin of the whole Atlantic Coast is one 
species. It is subject to the most extraordinary range of individual 
variations, however, not only in color, markings, and roughness of 
the shell, but in the more important structural features, such as size 
and shape of the skull, of the horny portions of the mouth, and the 
alveolar region. All these variations are purely fortuitous and do 
not depend on age, sex, or locality. It is hard to find two terrapin 
alike. 
I have often heard the theory advanced that the terrapin was not 
native to Buzzard’s Bay and Cape Cod but had been introduced from 
the south. No one who advances this theory can give any facts 
relating to such an undertaking. It is a convenient way of explain¬ 
ing a rather unexpected fact in the distribution of animal life. Ter¬ 
rapin eight inches long are not less than fifty years old and they are 
not shipped to market much smaller than eight inches. Now to my 
own knowledge terrapin of this size have been sent from Buzzard’s 
Bay by the barrel every winter for the last fifteen years, so that 
either the supposed introduction must have taken place sixty-five 
years ago or they must have been introduced in such numbers that 
it would have cost thousands of dollars; a work that I think few 
people are philanthrophic enough to undertake; also if the waters 
of Buzzard’s Bay and the south side of Cape Cod had not been suited 
