242 



AMERICAN TESTUDINATA. 



Part II. 



Avithout acknowledffino; these higher divisions, admits five families : Cheloiiiadae, 

 Sphargidoe, TrionicidtB, Emydid*, and Testudinidje, as does also Bell, though this 

 author divides these families between the two sections first introduced by Oppel, 

 admitting however, for them, the names proposed by Merrem. 



Fitzinger^ has also five families in the order of Chelonians, but these do not 

 exactly agree with those of Gray and Bell, for he unites the Sphargidag and the 

 Chelonidse, but he adds another family under the name of Chelydoidea. Ritgen^ 

 admits, above the genera, three primary sections, Eretmochelones, Phyllopodochelones, 

 and Podochelones ; and so does also Wagler,^ though he changes the names of 

 Eitgen into Oiacopodes, Steganopodes, and Tylopodes, calling them tribes, while 

 the whole order is considered as including a single fixmily. F. Meyer* admits the 

 same three subdivisions of his Tylopoda, (Testudinata,) but he gives them again 

 new names. Wiegmann^ divides the Testudinata into five families, Avithout higher 

 groups, namely, Chelona?, Chersina?, Eniyda?, Chelyda?, Chilota?. Swainson " admits 

 also five families, but with still different limits. Prince Canino," on the contrary, 

 admits three families and four sub-families, but his three families do not correspond 

 to the three sections or tribes of Wagler, as he unites the laud and fresh-water 

 Turtles into one family, while he considers the Trionychidge as a distinct fiimily, 

 which both Eitgen and Wagler place with the common fresh-water Turtles. The 

 land and fresh-water Turtles are to Canino only sub-families. Dumeril and Bibron 

 admit four families, Thalassites, Potamides, Elodites, and Chersites, and two sub- 

 families.' 



These apparently most discrepant classifications, if we judge them merely by 

 the different names employed by their authors, have in themselves more similarity 

 than would at first ajjpear. For instance, the three genera of Brongniart corre- 

 spond to the three sections or tribes of Eitgen and of Wagler; the three fami- 



Notice that though Gray admits five families in 1831 

 as in 182.5, he limits them differently in the second 

 than in the tirst Synopsis. 



* FiTziNGER, (L. J.,) Neue Classification der 

 Reptilien, Wien, 1826, 1 vol., 4to. ; see also his 

 Systema Reptilium, Vindobona% 1843, 1 vol., 8vo. 



' RiTGE.x, (F. A.,) Versuch einer naturlichen 

 Eintheilung der Amphibien, Nova Acta Nat. Cur., 

 1828, vol. 14. 



' Wagler, (J.,) Natiirliches System der Amphi- 

 bien, etc., Miinchen und Stuttgart, 1830, 1 vol. 8vo. 

 Atlas folio. 



* Meyer, (Fr. I. C.,) System des Thierreiehs, etc., 

 Verhandl. Nat. Ver. Eheinl., 1849. 



^ WiEGMANN, (A. F. A..) und RUTIIE, (J.,) 

 Ilandlnich der Zoologie, Berlin, 1832, 1 vol., 8vo. 

 The Reptiles are by Wiegmann. 



^ Swainson, (W.,) Natural History and Classi- 

 fication of Fishes, Amphibians, and Re|)tiles, London, 

 1838-39, 2 vols., 12mo. These volumes form part 

 of Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia. 



' Bonaparte, (C. Lucian, Prince of Canino,) 

 Saggio di una distribuzione metodica degli Aniraali 

 Vertebrali, Rom.a, 1832, 8vo. ; see also his Chelo- 

 niorum Tabula analytica, Romse, 183G. 



* Ddmeril, (A. M. C.,) et Bibron, (G.,) Erpd- 

 tologie gencSrale, ou Histoire naturelle complete des 

 Reptiles, Paris, 1836, et seq., vol. 1. 



