654 REPTILES—CISTUDINID ZA. 
The Brown Swift, known alsoas Pine-tree Lizard, and Brown Scorpion, is 
a very active little animal; it prefers sandy and rocky soils, especially 
regions of pine forests; and, though harmless when disturbed, elevates 
its scales so as to give to its body a more formidable appearance. It may 
be seen on sunny days on fences and the sides of houses, and apparently 
does not occur in wet places. It probably hybernates beneath old bark ; 
does not become adult until two years of age; and in Georgia breeds in 
April. 
ORDER TESTUDINATA. TURTLES.* 
Chelonia, GRAY, MIVART, HUXLEY, and MILNE EDWARDS. 
Body-covering in the form of a dorsal and ventral shield; carapax and plastron formed 
by a union of the epidermis and skeleton; head, neck, feet, and tail free; jaws in the 
form of a horny beak, edentulous; tongue thick and fleshy ; rami of lower mandible 
anchylosed ; bones of the cranium immovably united; alisphenoid unossified ; naso- 
ethmoid cartilage present ; premaxil)z small and united ; quadrate bone large, immov- 
able; caudal vertebrx procelous; sacral vertebrae two; thoracic walis immovable; 
legs four, with the pectoral and pelvic arches inside the skeleton; lungs voluminous, 
with exceedingly large cells; heart with two auricles and a ventricle, the latter with 
an imperfect septum ; urinary bladder large. 
KEY TO THE FAMILIES OF TESTUDINATA. 
* Limbs in the form of paddles. 5 ; : : . 6 ‘ CHELONIDZ, 
* Feet palmate; usually fluviatile. a. 
* Feet clavate; terrestrial; carapax very convex. : 5 TESTUDINIDZ. 
a. Carapax composed of hard osseous plates. 0b. 
a. Carapax leathery, without osseous plates. . : 6 TRIONYCHIDA, 
b. Sternal shields i2 or more. ce. 
b. Sternal shields less than 12. 5 ; . . . . CINOSTERNIDZ. 
c, Jaws usually not strongiy hooked; plastron oval or oblong. d. 
c. Jaws strongly hooked; plastron cruciform. . . . CHELYDRIDA. 
d. Plastron with a movable transverse suture ; carapax short and high. 
CISTUDINIDZ. 
d. Plastron usually without such suture ; carapax depressed or elongated. 
EMYDIDZ, 
*For classification and reproduction, see Agassiz’s Cont. Nat. Hist. U.S., and also 
Proe. Zool. Soc. London, 1869, p. 165. 
