316 AMERICAN TESTUDINATA. Part II. 



numerous species, other families are small, and their representatives more remotely 

 allied and fewer in number ; and, while some are limited in their range, others have 

 the widest distribution, so much so indeed, that even those pecuharities of their 

 existence which may seem the most trifling appear to have been devised with 

 the same thoughtfulness and the same providential care as their most important 

 general characteristics. It is, however, in the mode of their embryonic develop- 

 ment, that Turtles show, most directly, the thoughtful connection which may be 

 traced among all their peculiarities. For, while the young embryo Turtle exhibits, 

 at some period of its life, the closest resemblance to other Reptiles, and while still 

 younger, even to other Vertebrata, as soon as its Turtle characters begin to appear, 

 nothing can be more surprising, or more attractive to watch, than the manner in 

 which the pecvdiarities of the Amydte and Chelonii proper, and those of their 

 different families, are successively blended and specialized in the periodicity of their 

 exhibition, in their prevalence, in their transformation, and in their final growth. 

 It seems almost as if we were allowed to penetrate into the sanctum of the great 

 Artist, and could behold him so combining his thoughts as to produce a variety 

 of master-works, in this case all representing the same idea, but each in a pecul- 

 iar way, and at last endowing them with life for ages to come. 



The nature of these combinations, as characterizing the different families of 

 Testudinata, will be illustrated in the following chapter. 



