Chap. III. 



THE GENUS SPIIARGIS. 



373 



tical with that of Europe ; I)ut, in matters relating to the specific distinction of 

 Turtles, I am not willing- to take as evidence the assertion even of such distin- 

 guished zoologists, l^ecause they have described several North American species as 

 identical, which I know not only to be distinct species, lint even to belong to 

 distinct genera.^ There can be no doubt, however, that there is only one species 

 of Sphargis in the Atlantic and in the Mediterranean, which is universally known 



as Sl'IIAUOIS CORIACEA, Grwj? 



The first author who mentions this species is Eondelet, who, in his work de 

 Pisci/jus, published in 1554, describes and figui-es it, under the name of Testudo 

 coriacea sive Mercurii, from specimens caught in the Mediterranean. It has since 

 been noticed occasionally in the Mediterranean, and upon the Atlantic coast of 

 France and of England; but in all I cannot make out more than nine instances'^ 

 of its occurrence in the waters of Europe. Nor has it ever been seen to lay 

 its egg and multiply in that part of the world, while it is \ery common in the 

 warm parts of the Atlantic Ocean, especially along its American shores. It breeds 

 regulai-ly every year in the spring, on the Bahamas, on the Tortugas, and on 

 the coast of Brazil. It occurs less frequently, already, along the coast of Florida ; 

 it is caught occasionally on the coast of Alabama, Georgia, and South CaroHna, 

 and only accidentally visits the more northern shores of the United States. It 

 has, however, been noticed in the Chesapeake Bay, off Sandy Hook, and in Long 

 Island Sound. One specimen, taken in Massachusetts Bay in 1824, is now pre- 

 served in the Boston Museum. In 1848, I obtained one specimen mj-self, caught 

 about Cape Cod hy Capt. N. Atwood. 



From this critical examination of the localities where this species is found, and 



' Ozotheca odorata and Cinosternum pennsylva- 

 nicum, Xerobates carolinus and Clielonoidis talnilata. 



- This species exemplifies clearly a point in zo- 

 ological nomenclature which seems hardly yet under- 

 stood, though it has liccn f're(|uently debated before. 

 Many naturalists still Ijelieve, that the aiillidrity at- 

 faelied to the systematic name of a species indicates 

 the discoverer or first describer of such a species. 

 Nothing can be more remote from the truth. Tlie 

 name of a naturalist, attached to the scientifi<' name of 

 an animal, indicates only that he is the first who em- 

 ployed that binominal ap[)ellation to designate such an 

 animal. In tliis case Rondelet was the first who 

 described the species, which he calls Testldo cori- 

 acea sive Mercurii. "Winn Merreni recognized that 

 it constitutes a genus tor itself, he called the genus 

 Sl'liAl{<us, but wantoidy changed the specific name 



to Sphargis mer<:urialis. Had lie retained the spe- 

 cific name under which Rondelet described it, it would 

 have been called Sphargis coriacea, Merreni, as the 

 generic and specific names together constitute tlie sys- 

 tematic name of any animal. As it happened, J. E. 

 Gray was the first to connect the generic and specific 

 names, which nuist take precedence over all others, 

 and so tlie species is for ever to be called Sphargis 

 coriacea, Gray, even though Gray neither established 

 the genus nor described the species first. 



' Tliree times in the si.xteenlh century recorded 

 by Rondelet ; once at Cette, mentioned by Ainoreux ; 

 once at the mouth of the Loine, recorded by Dela- 

 fond ; twice on the coast of Cornwall, recorded by 

 Borlase ; once on the coast of Dorset, recorded by 

 Shaw : and once on the eastern coast of Italy, re- 

 corded by Schweigger. 



