File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17973481809).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo05amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
REPTILES OF THE VICINITY OF NEW YORK CITY 139 tection in time of danger. When the reptile is annoyed, the front and rear sections of the plastron are pulled upwards to- wards the carapace, and so closely do the two shells come together that it is difficult to insert even a fine wisp of straw at any point between them. The Box Tortoise lives to great age, as is shown by the fact that specimens have been found upon the shells of which were names and dates that had been carved there sixty and seventy years before. Such tortoises were found near the fields in which Box Tortoise.
Text Appearing After Image:
FIG. 46. BOX TORTOISE ; ON ITS BACK they lived when marked, hence the probability is that the ani- mal is not a great traveler. During very dry seasons the Box Tortoise has been known to abandon the surface of the ground and burrow deeply into moist earth or mud. Extremely variable in coloration, although the general colors are brown or black, irregularly marked with yellow, the species is more readily recognized by its form. The carapace is arched and high; the limbs are club-shaped and fitted for a terrestrial existence. )\Iale specimens may be recognized by a distinct concave area on the rear section of the plastron and by their

Note About Images