TORTOISE

a title variously applied: (1) to include all testudinate reptiles—both tortoises (including terrapins) and turtles—irrespective of sea-going, fresh-water, semi-aquatic, or land habits of life; (2) as embracing all but sea-going kinds, the marine creatures being known specifically as turtles, and (3) land kinds exclusively —all others being turtles. The most generally accepted American use of the titles is the second—‘‘tortoises”’ including all those that are fresh-water, semi-aquatic, and land; and ‘‘turtles’’ embracing those that are sea-going. Popular and trade usages are, however, not thus confined—they are indeed particularly contradictory. The title ‘‘tortoise,’’? for example, carries the greatest value in commerce—‘‘tortoise-shell’’ commanding a high market price, while ‘‘turtle-shell’’ conveys no suggestion of value—yet ‘‘tortoiseshell’? is of a marine turtle. On the other hand, as a food creature, the title ‘‘tortoise’’ is valuele , if not objectionable—to be enjoyed, the tortoise must in most sections masquerade as ‘‘turtle,’’ or if po ible as the salt-marsh ‘‘terrapin’’ (itself the queen of all tortoises). In this book, the separate article on Trerrapry includes another tortoise — the ‘*slider,’’ and that on Turtie carries a third, the ‘‘snapper.’’ Among other good edible tortoises are the ‘‘gopher,’’ a burrowing, land creature of the southeastern states, with a maximum shell-length of about twelve inches— famous in the South in the form of ‘‘gopher gumho’’—a soup (or it might better be termed a stew) of gopher meat, okra-pods, ete.; the several flattish, leathery coated ‘‘soft-shelled turtles,’’ particularly those of the South; and the handsome little ‘‘painted tortoises,’’ or ‘‘pond turtles’’—variously decorated, as in black or dark green with yellow and red markings.