COLLECTION OF REPTILES. 



We shall follow this division ; but the place 

 which the specimens occupy in the cabinet, ren- 

 ders it necessary to examine them twice (i). 



Amongst the reptiles of the three first orders, 

 as amongst the quadrupeds > there are some spe- 

 cimens too large to be placed in the cases; these 

 have been suspended from the ceiling or attached 

 to the wall ; and as they first attract our atten- 

 tion, we shall describe them before those which 

 are in the cases. 



The species of the genus tortoise, suspended 

 from the ceiling, are : the leather tortoise, or the 

 lute of the Mediterranean seas. This species is 

 the largest of all ; and the one we here see is 

 seven feet long ; its weight is often more than 

 twelve hundred pounds. It has no apparent 

 breastplate ; its upper shell or carapace (2) has 

 five projecting bones or ridges, and is covered 



(1) The want of space not having permitted the arrangement of all 

 the reptiles to be made according to the degree of affinity of the genera, 

 we shall not, in pointing out the objects which are more worthy of 

 notice in this collection, designate them by the cases in which they 

 now are contained, as we have done for the birds ; because as the 

 fishes are about to be removed into the room occupied by the library, 

 the reptiles will then be distributed more at large and in their natural 

 order, when the description we give will be found consistent with the 

 new arrangement. 



(2) The two bones which envelope the body of the tortoise are called 

 the bucklers ; the one on the back is named the upper shed, or carapace ; 

 and the under one, the breastplate. Both are in most tortoises co- 

 vered with scales, fitted together like inlaid work. The characters for 



