TERRAPINS. 
73 
uniform blackish. The plastron is yellowish or reddish, with variable black 
marking’s. 
It is this species that generally forms the celebrated New York dish known as 
terrapin; but it would seem that other species are also used, as the following account 
refers to terrapins taken high up the rivers. The best terrapins go by the name of 
“diamond-backs,” and do not generally exceed some 7 indies in length, although they 
may rarely measure as much as 10 inches, but all terrapin of larger dimensions 
belong to the inferior kinds, ordinarily designated “ sliders.” According to Mr. W. 
M. Laffan, “ terrapin are caught all the way from Savannah and Charleston to the 
Patapsio River at Baltimore, but the genuine diamond-back belongs only to the 
Upper Chesapeake and its tributaries. The majority of the sliders are brought to 
Baltimore from the James River. The terrapin-catchers make from five to twenty 
dollars per week, and they find the reptile, or * bird,’ as the bon vivant calls it, by 
probing the mud in the shallows with sticks. The terrapin is dormant, and when 
found is easily secured. A 4-lb. terrapin taken about September 15th will 
exist prosperously in a dark, cool place, without food or drink, until April 15th, 
and (the dealers say) will gain two ounces in weight. After that time it gets 
lively and active, and will take hold of a finger with great effusion and effective¬ 
ness. The male terrapin is known as a ‘ bull,’ and the female as a ‘ cow.’ The 
latter is much more highly prized, and generally contains about thirty eggs. 
No dish of terrapin is thought complete without being garnished with these.” 
Formerly caught in shoals, the diamond-back has now become very scarce, and is, 
indeed, in some danger of extermination. The terrapin furnished in hotels is 
almost invariably “ sliders,” diamond-backs being sold to private houses only. 
Painted The seven remaining genera of the family constitute a distinct 
Terrapin. group, distinguished from the one including the six genera just men¬ 
tioned by the circumstance that the broad front portion of the palate of the skull is 
marked by one or two longi¬ 
tudinal ridges, and likewise by 
all the species being mainly or 
exclusively herbivorous in their 
diet. Among these, the large 
and exclusively American genus 
Ghrysemys, with a dozen species, 
of which the painted terrapin 
(C. picta ) is one of the best 
known, belongs to a subgroup 
of three genera, characterised 
by the bony buttresses con¬ 
necting the upper with the 
lower shell being short or of 
moderate size. From its allies 
Chrysemys is distinguished by 
the opening of the posterior 
nostrils being situated between the eyes, and by the entoplastral bone being 
situated in advance of the groove on the plastron formed by the junction of the 
PAINTED TERRAPIN. 
