1904 Carolina Terrapin ID

Below is more from the 1904 Hay publication, very abreviated due to the long physical descriptions: Malaclemmys centrata. The Carolina Terrapin. Distribution from Cape Hatteras to the coast of Florida The coloration is extremely variable and offers no diagnostic characters of value. A series of 85 terrapin from Enterprise, North Carolina, showed the following variation: 13 females. 5 inches long and under (measured on the middle line of the plastron), ranged from rather light slate-green individuals, very slightly marbled with darker, to some in which the scales of the carapace were black with more or less wide slate-green margins; the plastrons ranged from a rather pronounced orange yellow, through honey yellow, to greenish gray; in some cases the plastrons were uniformly colored, in others they were more or less blotched or clouded with dusky; the lips were white and the top of the head was white or light greenish. Eight females, 5 inches long and under, had the carapace entirely black and the plastron yellow organge much blotched and clouded with black; the upper lip and the top of the head were black, and the skin of the neck, legs, and tail was gray- green with many short crooked black lines and small specks. Five females, of about the same size as those just mentioned were almost perfectly intermediate in coloration, having brownish carapaces with more or less strong traces of green marbling, and plastrons varying from green-gray to orange yellow, some plain and others clouded. Of 8 females about 6 inches long, 2 were very light colored, the scales being marked with concentric lines of greenish gray or brown on a darker background; 2 were very dark brown, the others were intermediate; the plastron was yellowish gray-green, alomost uniform in the light colored individuals, but clouded with black in the darker colored specimens. Of the males 20 had the scales of the carapace broadly margined with greenish gray, around a center of black or light brown; the lips and top of the head were white or whitish; the plastrons were as variable as in the females described above, but the dusky markings had the form of small specks rather than indefinite cloudings. Eighteen males varied from uniform black to specimens in which the scales had a large black center and a margin of dark greenish-gray; the top of the head was black and in all but one case the lips were black; in 11 males the color was like those just described, except that the upper lip was white; in 2 males the color was dark, like those just described, but both the top of the head and the upper lip were white. This form, although variable, can readily be recognized by its large head, smooth carapace, and low dorsal ridge. From North Carolina northward, it begins to intergrade with the northern form, M. centrata concentrica, and is displaced altogether before the mouth of Chesapeake Bay is reached. The absence of concentric markings, usually mentioned as characteristic of the species, is apparently the common condition in typical M. centrata, although now and then an individual is found which shows them quite as plainly as the northern form. The usual coloration seems to be dark brownish or greenish black with a border of lighter green gray around each scale of the carapace. It is not exceptional to find individuals of this species with the transverse diameters of the shell before and behind the bridge nearly equal and the sides straight, the outline of the carapace thus a long oval. Dealers in terrapin regard Malaclemmys centrata with little favor, and it commands a much lower price in the markets than does the northern form. The reasons for this unpopularity are variously stated to be toughness and coarseness of flesh, large size of the bones, lack of flavor, uninviting appearance, and it would seem that all the disagreeable qualities are found combined in the terrapin from South Carolina and Georgia; those from North Carolina are more esteemed, probably owing to the fact that among them are to be found numerous individuals which can be made to pass muster as genuine “Chesapeakes.”