the Tro-Cortesianus.
With one exception, they seem to be limited to this codex. That shown on
Pl. 14, figs. 1-3, 5, is a large species with the dorsal scutes
represented by large diamond-shaped pieces. There is little that might
be considered distinctive about these turtles, although one (Pl. 14,
fig. 5) has the anterior paddles much larger than the posterior,
indicating a sea turtle. What is doubtless the same turtle is pictured
in several places in the Nuttall Codex. In one of the figures in the
latter manuscript, the shell is shown apparently in use as a shield (Pl.
14, fig. 4). This would indicate one of the large sea turtles, and there
is not much doubt that either the Loggerhead turtle (_Thalassochelys
cephalo_) or the Hawksbill (_Chelone imbricata_) is here intended.

Quite another species is that shown in Pl. 14, fig. 6. That this is a
freshwater turtle is plainly indicated by the parasitic leeches that are
noted fastened by their round sucking-discs to the sides of its body.
The long neck, pointed snout, and apparent limitation of the dorsal
spinous scutes to the central area of the back may indicate the snapping
turtle (_Chelydra serpentina_) or possibly a species of the genus
_Cinosternum_ (probably _C. leucostomum_). It is hardly likely that it
is one of the true soft-shelled turtles (_Trionyx_), as the range of
that genus is not known to include Mexico. The turtle from Nuttall 43
(Pl. 14, fig. 11) may belong to the same species as its scutes seem
rather few, or it may be that the view shown here is of the ventral side
and that the scales indicate the small plastron of one of the sea
turtles.

The turtle appears alone as one of the figures in the _tonalamatl_ in
several cases in the Tro-Cortesianus, 13a, 17a (Pl. 14, fig. 3), 72b
(Pl. 14, fig. 6). It is found associated with the toad appearing in the
rain in Tro-Cortesianus 17b (Pl. 14, fig. 2) and alone in the rain in
13a. In Tro-Cortesianus 81c (Pl. 14, fig. 5), it appears in front of an
unidentifiable god.

Schellhas has called the turtle an animal symbolical of the lightning
basing his opinion, as Brinton (1895, p. 74) tells us, on Dresden 40b
where a human figure with animal head is holding two torches in his
hands. This figure does not seem to us to represent a turtle, as is
commonly supposed, but a parrot, as will be pointed out later (p. 343).
Foerstemann (1902, p. 27) identifies the turtle with the summer
solstice, as has been noted before, expla