COLLECTION OF REPTILES. 3gi 



terly unable to move, they are sure to be found 

 in the same place ; and it is not until a consider- 

 able number of them are caught in the like man- 

 ner, that they are collected and carried to the 

 ship. 



The great land tortoise of India : the feet of 

 this species are rounded off like a stump, instead 

 of being long and flat like those of the sea tor- 

 toise ; it is the largest of all the land tortoises, 

 its carapace being sometimes three feet long. 

 Of the three species which are here, the two 

 largest were given by M. de FEtang, and the 

 smallest which weighed one hundred pounds 

 was kept sometime alive in our menagerie. 



Amongst tlte tortoises which are fastened to 

 the wall or placed on the cornice, we shall only 

 remark the following : the testudo radiata from 

 New Holland ; the great emy d with a large back, 

 from Cayenne, (emys expansa) ; an enormous 

 carapace of the tyrse or soft tortoise of the Nile 

 (trlonyjc cegyptiacus), which renders the most 

 essential services to the Egyptians, by devouring 

 the young crocodiles immediately after they are 

 hatched ; it was brought from Egypt by M. Geof- 

 froy Saint-Hilaire ; the testudo fimbria , the cara- 

 pace of which is covered with pyramidal points, 

 it inhabits the fresh water ponds and rivers near 

 Cayenne, where it conceals itself under the leaves 



