TERRAPINS. Ill 



placed on a table, continued to beat for some twenty- 

 four hours longer. 



Like the Alligator Terrapin, the snapping turtle is 

 highly valued as an article of food, and is kept for 

 this purpose just as we keep the green turtle in the 

 tanks called " crawls." In England, the turtles 

 spend one day in the tank, and the next on the floor 

 of the cell; this plan being found to keep them in 

 good health. 



There is an African representative of the snapping 

 turtle, called the Tyrse (Trionyx Nileticus). As its 

 specific name implies, it inhabits the Nile, and there 

 makes much havoc among the young crocodiles. 

 Both these creatures belong to a small group of 

 aquatic tortoises, called soft turtles, because the hard 

 shell-covering only extends over a part of the back, 

 leaving the rest comparatively soft. They owe the 

 name of turtle to their size, although, as is shown by 

 the structure of the feet, they are only tortoises who 

 are qualified by their webbed feet for swimming in 

 the water. 



We now come to another group of reptilian water 

 trespassers. We have seen how the lizards are thus 

 represented by the crocodiles and alligators ; the 

 batrachians by the newts, frogs, and toads, and their 

 kin ; and the tortoises by the turtles of the ocean, and 

 the various aquatic tortoises of the rivers and lakes. 

 Only one group of reptiles now remains, namely, the 

 Serpents ; and even among them we find many species 

 that are as much water trespassers as are the newt or 

 the turtle. All snakes, I believe, are able to swim ; 



