THE LIVING WORLD. 
217 
orange. It is easily domesticated and therefore is frequently made a pet of by 
young ladies who delight in being peculiar. 
The Painted Tortoise ( Chrysemys picta) is a very common variety in the 
Eastern States, where it is sometimes nicknamed mud-turtle . The carapax 
is usually black, with a greenish hue, and the marginal plates dotted with spots 
of bright red. 
The Salt Marsh Terrapin (. Malacoclenemys geographicus) is better known 
as the diamond-back , and best appreciated for its excellent flesh. It is found 
everywhere along the coast from Long 
Island to Texas. I11 the cold season 
it hibernates in the mud, at which 
times its flesh is more highly prized 
and great numbers are taken to mar¬ 
ket, where it sells at a very high 
price. So profitable do tortoise catch¬ 
ers find them that the industry of 
terrapin farming has recently been 
started, which I am told yields a 
splendid return on the capital and 
labor expended. This species is of a dark olive color on the back, with dark 
stripes traversing the plates of the upper and lower shells. 
Yellow-bellied Terrapin ( Pseudemys troostii) is the name of a small species 
found plentifully in both creeks and rivers of the West as far north as St. 
Louis. In color it is of a very dark green, with horn-colored lines and spots 
on the side plates. The plastron is yellow, splotched with black, and under the 
throat are several green stripes. 
The Alligator Terrapin ( Chelydra serpentina ) is also an American species 
found in nearly all parts of the United States. Its preference is for stagnant 
ponds, where the mud is deep and 
of a slimy consistency, into which 
it burrows at the approach of dan¬ 
ger, though it is by no means a 
timid animal. I have often seen 
them, especially the occupants of a 
shallow stream, with backs covered 
thickly with decayed vegetable mat¬ 
ter, so as to resemble moss, as if 
the creature had not moved out of 
one spot for more than a season. 
They are very voracious, and ap- 
sea tortoise. pareutly indifferent as to the kind 
of food offered, grabbing anything 
that is digestible. When the streams or ponds in which it has taken 
abode become dried up, it travels across land any distance in search of 
water and without inconvenience. My observations lead to the belief that its 
instincts for finding water are most unreliable, for I have found them in the 
highway and going over low-lying ground in a direction directly away from 
inviting ponds. While on land his motions are extremely slow and awkward, 
stumbling along with head held erect, unmindful of the obstacles that may lie 
EUROPEAN MARSH turtee ( Testudo lutoria). 
