The Zoologist— March, 1869. 1697 



" Some weeks since, when examining the large collection of animal 

 remains in Mr. Birch's possession, all of which were, I believe, fomid 

 on his estate in Norfolk, 1 found, to ray surprise, some specimens far 

 more interesting than any I had expected to meet with. They con- 

 sist of some limb-bones and a considerable portion of the dorsal and 

 sternal shields of two individuals of the European fresh-water tortoise 

 {Emys lutaria), a species the existence of which at any time in the 

 British islands has never before been suspected. These were found, 

 as a label upon them in Mr. Birch's handwriting testifies, so long ago 

 as June, 1836, in a peat-bog, by the side of a spring-pit, at East 

 Wretham, about seven feet below the surface, and beneath some fifteen 

 hundred laminations of a species of Hypnum, specimens of which 

 were, I understand, submitted by Mr. Birch to Sir William Hooker, 

 who declared the species to be Hypnum filicinnm. I immediately 

 communicated these facts to Professor Owen and Professor Bell, as 

 being respectively the highest authorities on the fossil and recent 

 reptiles of this country ; and subsequently sent the remains to the first- 

 named gentleman, who kindly determined the species for me, thereby 

 confirming the view I had taken of them, but adding that they were 

 somewhat larger than modern examples from Germany, now in the 

 British Museum." — Professor Alfred Newton, in Zool. 8189. 



" I was exceedingly startled to read, in the last number of the 

 'Zoologist' (Zool. 8190) an extract from Mr. Newton's essay 'On the 

 Zoology of Ancient Europe,' in which he says the remains of a fresh- 

 water tortoise have been discovered in recent peat in Norfolk. The 

 following has been in print some months in a Supplement prepared by 

 myself to a forthcoming work, by Sir Oswald Mosley, on the Zoology 

 of this district: — 'Cistudo europsea, Cuv. (The Spotted Marsh Tor- 

 toise). This species is introduced owing to an example having been 

 captured, in the early part of the summer of 1857, on the banks of the 

 canal near Burton. It is not a species that can be kept long in cap- 

 tivity ; but it is probable it may have lived for a long period in the 

 canal, or even have bred there, if accident had provided it with a mate. 

 This animal is said not to take food excepting in the water. The indi- 

 vidual in question died very soon after coming into my possession.' 

 When I penned the above remarks I had no other idea than that my 

 specimen, improbable though the supposition was, had been kept in 

 an aquarium, and had escaped accidentally from captivity. With the 

 evidence, however, adduced by Mr. Newton of the recent occupancy 

 of this country by a fresh-water tortoise, it appears to me to be the less 



