CLASS REPTILIA. 



TESTUDINATA. 



The Loggerhead Turtle, Shaw, Gen. Zool. vol. iii. p. 85, pi. 23 ; 

 Chelonia Caouana, Schweigger ; Testudo Caretta, Linn., 



Has been taken alive on the coast, as mentioned in the following note, 

 which I published in the Annals of Natural History, vol. v. p. 8. 



" To the kindness of H. H. Dombrain, Esq., of Dublin, I owe the op- 

 portunity of examining a turtle of this species hitherto vmnoticed on the 

 British shores, which was obtained on the coast of Donegal in May, 1838, 

 and soon afterwards came into his possession. The specimen, about a foot 

 in length, was taken by a man engaged in collecting sea-weed for manure, 

 and who, finding the hook at the end of the long pole used for ' haul- 

 ing in the rack ' had caught in something, carefully drew it towards him, 

 when the captive proved to be a living turtle, whose eye the hook had 

 entered. ])r. 11. Ball informs me that a turtle of this species, in his col- 

 lection, was taken alive in the sea near Youghal ; but he has been in- 

 clined to regard it merely as an individual washed oft' the deck of a vessel, 

 or one that had escaped from the cord Avhich was intended to secure it, 

 when (as is a common custom on board ship) it may have been committed 

 to the sea for the benefit of a swim. However, as both the specimens 

 which have been procured on the L'ish coast are of the same species, and 

 one which according to Dumeril and Bibron is very common in the 

 Mediterranean, and of occasional occurrence in the Atlantic Ocean, they 

 may by the natural influence of Avinds and waves have been carried to 

 our shores. This remark would, from the circumstance of its frequenting 

 the same seas, likewise apply to the much rarer species, the Leathery Tur- 

 tle, SpJtarf/7s coriacea, which has been taken on the English coast. The 

 Hawk's-Bill Turtle, Chelonia imhricata, now included in the British Fauna, 

 may, more probably than the other two species, have been washed off the 

 decks of vessels or outlived their wreck, its native abode being so far re- 

 mote from the British seas as the West Indies and the Lidian Ocean." * 



The Common Lizard, or Viviparous Lizard, Zootoca vkipara, 

 Wagl. Bell ; Lacerta (Kjilis, Bei'kenh. Jenyns, 



Is common in suitable localities througliout the island. 



I have seen specimens from all quarters; and the result of my examina- 

 tions of several of these appears in the following note from my Journal : — 



* " All the localities noted by Dumeril and Bibron, except Havarma, are 

 within, or bordering on, the Indian Ocean." — Erpetologie Generale, tome ii. 

 p. bbl. 



