Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/27

Rh fresh-water snails, and insects; nor does the flesh of larger creatures drowned in the lakes, or bogged in the marshes, come amiss to them. The eggs are rounded, with a hard, white, calcareous shell; they are deposited in shallow cavities scraped in the soft earth on the margins of the waters in which they reside, whence the young, hatched by the heat of the sun, readily find their way into their proper element.

In this genus all the feet are furnished with five toes, but the inner toe of the hind foot is destitute of a nail: the plastron is wide, and oval, and is furnished with twelve plates; the marginal plates of the carapace are twenty-five. The jaws are strong and cutting, the mandibles notched, and toothed in a manner closely resembling the beak of a Falcon.

The most common European fresh-water Tortoise belongs to a genus allied to Emys, but distinguished by having the plastron attached to the buckler by a cartilage, allowing it some degree of mobility. It is named Cistudo Europæa, and is extended over the whole south-east of Europe, as far north as Prussia. It attains the length of nine or ten inches; the carapace is oval, of a blackish hue, marked with yellowish specks; the skin of the neck and breast is similarly spotted. It is a species of some elegance, but it is most esteemed for the excellence of its flesh, and is commonly sold in the markets of Germany. To improve its flavour, colonies of these animals, kept in ponds, are fattened upon