60 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATION.S. 



A Monograph of the Testudinata, by Tliomas Bell, F. R. S., Fellow of 

 the Linnean, Geological, and Zoological Societies ; Corresponding 

 Member of the Society of Natural History of Paris, and Lecturer on 

 Comparative Anatomy, at Guy's Hospital. Folio, Parts I. to VI. 

 London : J. Halinbourg, Southampton-street, Strand. 



This splendid and valuable description of the Tortoise tribe is intended 

 to supply a link hitherto deficient in the chain of Zoological observation. 

 In an introduction of considerable interest, Mr. Bell comments upon the 

 want of a work similar to the one he has so admirably commenced, 

 and accompanies the explanation of his design with apparently well- 

 founded strictures upon the writers who have preceded him on the sub- 

 ject. Linnaeus, Gmelin, Schneider, Wallbaum, Lacepede, Schoepff, 

 Latreille, Sonnini, Daudin, Shaw, Brongniant, Geoffroy, Oppel, 

 Schweigger, Merrem, Fitzinger, Wagler, and Gray, are the principal 

 men of science who have directed their attention to the order Testudo, 

 but elaborate as have been many of their researches, they have failed to 

 establish any satisfactory authority regarding the very singular animals 

 included under the denomination. The objections which, on this head, 

 lie against these eminent writers, are pointed out with delicate decision, 

 and are sufficiently valid to prove the necessity of the present addition 

 to our Zoological library. Alluding to the tasks which direct the studies 

 of individuals to particular branches of ** natural knowledge'* to the 

 comparative exclusion of the rest, Mr. Bell proceeds thus — ** Of the 

 various branches into which the science of Zoology has thus been 

 divided, Erpetology, or the study of the Reptilia, has perhaps been the 

 most neglected. The superiority of organization in the Mammifera, 

 with the interest attached to the habits of many species, and the utility 

 of others, administering as they do to our daily wants or comforts, — the 

 elegance of form, the splendour of plumage, and the sweetness of note, 

 which renders the different families of birds so attractive, even the varied 

 beauty of the shelly covering of the testaceous Mollusca, — but, above 

 all, the endless varieties of form which characterize the insect tribes, and 

 the never-ceasing fascination which the contemplation of their habits is 

 calculated to excite, have necessarily attracted the devotion of most of 

 the votaries of this delightful branch of natural knowledge." (Introduc- 

 tion, p. 1.) Speaking of the facility of his undertaking, the Professor 

 remarks — 



"In composing a Monograph of the present Order, there is no difficulty in 

 ascertaining its exact limits, nor danger of committing the error either of intro- 

 ducing any individual belonging to any approximating group, or of rejecting as 

 doubtful any one which really appertains to this. There is, in fact, scarcely any 

 group of animals, which, according to our present knowledge, is so distinctly 

 circumscribed by peculiarity of structure as the Testudinata. The circumstance of 

 the limbs being placed within instead of on the outside of the trunk, and the 

 osseous union of the ribs, forming a sort of bony box, including not only the 

 viscera but the members, are characters which at once separate them from every 

 other known group. Whether future investigations, either in recent or especially 

 in fossil Zoology, may discover the links by which these singular animals are con- 

 nected, by continuous affinity, with any of the groups from which at present they 

 appear to be so distinctly separated, we cannot now even conjecture ; but at present 

 they certainly remain ihe most isolated Order, not only amongst the Reptilia, but 

 perhaps in the whole kingdom. 



"As the species which inhabit the continent of Europe and the seas which were 

 navigated by its ancient inhabitants are but few, we look in vain to the classical 

 writers on natural subjects for any but the most vague and uncertain notices 

 respecting them. That the four species of marine turtles were known both to the 



