CISTUDA CAROLINA. 13 



Geographical Distribution. The Cistuda Carolina is found from one extremity 

 of the Union to the other. I have seen it in all the Atlantic states, even as far 

 north as Maine, and have received specimens from Florida, Alabama and Louisiana. 

 Dr. Pickering observed it in Ohio, and Say as far west as the Engineer cantonment 

 on the Missouri. 



General Remarks. The first notice of this animal is to be found in the 

 "Gleanings of Natural History," by George Edwards, who has given a very good 

 figure of it, done from a living specimen sent him by Alexander Light, Esq., of 

 South Carolina. He observes that the sternum is "divided in two at the middle 

 of the belly," and that " these two pieces are attached to the shell by a skin, 

 strong, tough, and flexible," which gives to the animal " the power to close itself 

 as firmly as an oyster." The figure of Edwards is only faulty in being without a 

 tail; although in his description he speaks of a tail "very short, with the vent 

 opening near the extremity." Linnseus next gave it a place in the tenth edition 

 of his Systema Naturae, under the name Testudo Carolina; of this there can be 

 no doubt, as his only reference is to the Testudo tessellata, Carolina, &c. of 

 Edwards.* 



Gmelin did great harm to the science of Herpetology by receiving, in his 

 edition of the Systema Naturae, as a new species, under the name Testudo clausa, 

 the tortoise described by Bloch,t which is certainly the Testudo Carolina of 

 Linnseus. He has thus most unnecessarily increased the catalogue of synonymes, 

 by describing the same animal twice under different names. Schoepf is still more 

 to blame for adopting this name of clausa; the more so, as he was fully aware, as 

 may be seen by his own remarks and references, of the identity of the Testudo 

 Carolina of Linnaeus and the Testudo clausa of Gmelin. Thus, he gives as 

 references, in the description of the Testudo clausa of his work, the Testudo 

 Carolina of the tenth edition of the Systema Naturae of Linnaeus; and furthermore, 



* See North American Herpetology, vol. i. p. 45. 

 t Schrift. der Berl. Naturf., fr. 7, p. 131, tab. i. 



