ORDER CHELONIA. 77 



Holland ; of a dark olive-brown colour, and of a texture 

 resembling leather. The shell is oblong and flattish, and 

 the first vertebral shield is very large. Nothing is known of 

 its habits ; but the head, in common with the species of this 

 group, cannot be drawn back under the shield. 



On the second division of emys, the box-tortoises, we 

 shall again gladly avail ourselves of the excellent observa- 

 tions of Mr. Bell, in his monograph on this genus, in the 

 second volume of the Zoological Journal, p. 299, &c- 



This gentleman very properly observes, that when a num- 

 ber of species are found in any group of animals, different 

 in some important and essentially anatomical character, 

 they should be separated into a subordinate group, and 

 receive a distinctive appellation. The box-tortoises were 

 included in the emydes of Brongniart, with which they, 

 doubtless, have much affinity. But Merrem, observing the 

 character of their sternum, separated into two or three 

 moveable divisions, formed them into a distinct genus, under 

 the name of Terrapeyie. Mr. Say, the American zoologist, 

 without appearing to have known of this separation of Mer- 

 rem, has also divided them into a distinct group, which he 

 has called Cistuda. Spix has applied the generic term Ki- 

 7iosternon to two Brazilian species. 



Like the emydes which we have already noticed, they are 

 fresh-water tortoises. They agree with them in the general 

 form of the shell, the subpalmation of the toes, and in 

 aquatic habits. In the species confounded under the name 

 Terrapene clausa and its synonyms, there would seem, at 

 first view, to be an exception to this ; but though they are 

 called in America land-tortoises, and have something similar 

 in appearance and habits to ^es^?<(Zo proper, yet their affinities 

 with emys are sufficiently numerous and important. We are 

 told by SchcepfF that T. clausa^ though sometimes found in 



