_Ch. picta_ (Fig. 76), the "Painted Terrapin," of the Eastern United States, _e.g._ of New York and Long Island, is easily recognised by the much depressed shell, which is absolutely smooth, and without a trace of a keel. The colour above is dark olive-brown or blackish, with broad yellow bands across the anterior ends of the neural and costal shields. Three or four of these transverse bands are very conspicuous. The marginals are red, with more or less concentric black and yellow markings. The pretty red colour, with some black stripes, extends over the bridge, but the plastron itself is uniformly yellow. The soft parts are likewise prettily marked, the ground-colour is black-brown, with delicate bright yellow and red stripes on the sides of the neck, limbs, and tail. The stripes are originally yellow, but they develop an orange or red line in the middle, so that each red stripe is ultimately narrowly edged with yellow; or the yellow and red stripes alternate, for instance on the tail, which is short, narrow, and pointed. The head is further adorned with a pair of conspicuous bright yellow patches behind the eyes, and a smaller pair on the occiput. The black and yellow stripes run across the gape of the mouth, some of the lines even looking as if they had been {348}painted across. The nuchal shield is elongated and very narrow, its anterior edge and that of the neighbouring marginals are finely serrated. Very young individuals are at once recognised by the prominent longitudinal median stripe of bright orange extending over the nuchal and neural shields; the yellow transverse bands are still absent; they appear when the longitudinal line vanishes. [Illustration: FIG. 76.–_Chrysemys picta_, "Painted Terrapin." × ½.] The "Painted Terrapin" is one of the few species of which, thanks to L. Agassiz,[132] complete data of growth from the new born to old age are known. During the first six or seven years the rate of growth is so uniform that numerous specimens collected at the same time are readily arranged in sets of the same age, simply by the differences they show in their size. The successive lines of growth on the shields indicate the number of years. After the seventh year the age is much more difficult to distinguish in those tortoises, which, like _Ch. picta_, have a perfectly smooth epidermis. This smoothness is due to the fact that the shields undergo a process of moulting. An upper, quite {349}transparent layer of each shield peels off completely like a piece of mica. I have been able to confirm Agassiz' statement on _Ch. concinna_ in their third and fourth springs, and on a number of adult _Ch. picta_. The latter were not allowed to hibernate, being kept in a warm tank; they peeled completely during the late autumn, and then the red and yellow colours underlying the newly formed shields appeared very vividly; others moult at midsummer. Growth of _Ch. picta_, after Agassiz.