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Show 8 REPTILIA. Teat. europrea, Schn.; T. orbicularis, L.; Schrepf. pl. I( 1) fThe Fresh-water Tortoise of Europe), is the most universally diffused species; it is found in all the south and east of Europe as far as and in Prussia. Its shell is oval, but slightly convex, tolerably smooth, blacki3h, and evet•y where dotted with yellowish points arranged in radii. It attains the length of ten inches; its flesh is used as food, and it is reared for that purpose with bread, young vegetables, &c. Marsigli says, its eggs are a year in being hatched. Test. picta; Schrepf. pl. iv (The Painted To1·toise), is one of the most beautiful species; it is smooth and brown, each plate being surrounded with a yellow band, which is very broad on the anterior edge. It is found in North America along the shores of brooks, on rocks or trunks of trees, whence it plunges into the water on the first alarm.(2) Among the fresh-water Tortoises we should remark THE Box-ToRTOISEs,(3) The sternum of which is divided by a movable articulation into two lids, which, when the head and limbs are withdrawn, completely encase the animal in its shell. In some the anterior lid only is movable.( 4) In others both are equally so.( 5) (1) It is the same as the verte et jaune, Lacep. pl. vi, and his ronde, pl. v, see the 1\lonog. of this species by M. Bojanus, Vilna, 1819, fol. (2) Add Em.lutaria, Lacep., IV;-Em . .!ldansonii, Schweig;-Em.senegalenais, Dumer.;-Em. subrufa, Lacep., Xlli;-Em. contracta, Schweig;-Em. punctata, Scho:pf. V;-Em. reticulata, Daud.;-Em. rubriventris, Le Conte;-Em. serrata, Daud. 11, xxi;-Em. concinna, Le Conte, or geometrica, Lesueur;-Em. geogra· phica, Lesueur;-Em. scripta, Scho:pf., III, 4;-Em. cinerea, Id. II, 3;-Em. cen· trata, Daud. or terrapen, Scho:pf., XV ;-Em. concentrica, Le Conte;-Em. odorata, Jd. ;-Em. fusca, Lesueur;-Em. leprosa, Schw. ;-Em. nasuta, Id. ;-Em. dorsata, Scho:pf.;-Em. pulcltella, Scha:pf.,. XXVI, or insculpta, Le Conte;.--Em. lutescens, Schw.;-Em. expansa, Id.;-Em. Macquaria, Cuv. M. Fitzinger separates under the name of CuELODINA, and M. Bell under that of HYDRABPis, those species which have a more elongated neck, such as the Em. kmgicollis, Shaw, Gen. Zool. 111, part. I, pl. xvi;-Em. planiceps, Schrepf., XXVII, or canaliculata, Spix, VIII;-Em. platicepltala, Merrem;-Em. depressa, Spix, Iti, 2;-Em. carunculata, Aug. St. Hil. ;-Em. tritentaculata, I d. (3) This subdivision gave Merrem his genus TERR.APENE, Spix his .I.UNOSTER· NoN, and Fleming his CtsTun.A. The European species, and others already par· take of this movability, which renders the task of limiting the genus a difficult matter. (4) Test. subnigra, I, vii, 2;-T. claus(l, Schrepf., VII. (5) La Tortue d boite d' .!lmboine, Daud.II, 309;-Tht. tricarinata, Schrepf., II;Test. penmylvanica, I, d. xxiv. [To which may be added T. odorata, Daud . .B.m.Ed.] CHELONIA. 9 There are some Fresh-water Tortoises, on the contrary, whose long tail and voluminous members cannot be completely retracted within the shell. This approximates them to the following subgenera, and particularly to the Chelydes, and renders them consequently worthy of distinction.(!) Such is, Test. 8erpentina, L.; Schrepf. pl. vi. (The Snapper.) Easily recognised by its tail, which is nearly as long as its shell, and bristled with sharp and dentated crests, and by its pyramidically elevated plates. It is found in the warm parts of North America, where it destroys numbers of fishes and aquatic birds, wanders far from rivers, and sometimes weighs upwards of twenty pounds. CHELONIA, Brongn.(2) The envelope of the Sea Tortoises(3) is too small to receive their head, and particularly their feet, which are very long (the anterior ones most so,) and flattened into fins. The toes are all closely united in the same membrane, the two first ones of each foot being alone furnished with pointed nails, one or other of which at a certain age is usually lost. The pieces of their sternum do not form a continuous plate, but are variously notched, leaving considerable intervals which are filled with cartilage only. The ribs are narrowed and separated from each other at their external extremities; the circumference of the shell, however, is surrounded with a circle of pieces corresponding to the ribs of the sternum. The temporal fossa is covered above by an arch formed by the parietal and other bones, so that the whole head is furnished with an uninterrupted osseous helmet. The internal surface of the resophagus is every where armed with sharp cartilaginous points whh:h incline towards the stomach. Test. mydas, L.;( 4) T. viridis, Schn.; Lacep. I, 1 (The G1·een Tortoise), is distinguished by its greenish plates thirteen . ' m number, which are not arranged like tiles; those of the mid-dle range are almost regular hexagons. It is found from six to seven feet long, and weighing from seven to eight hundred (1) This subdivision has furnished M. Fitzinger with his genus CHELYDRJ. :md M. Fleming with that of CHELONURA. ' (2) Chelonia, from ;t•J..mr. Merrem bas preferred the barbarous name of CJ.· RETTA. (3) Commonly, but absurdly, termed Turtle; they might, with equal propriety, be called Doves. Jlm. Ed. . ( 4) !his name of Mydas was taken by Lin me us from Niphus. Schneider con- Siders 1t as a corruption ofi,«u~. VoL. II.-B |