ZOOLOGY, 



Genus-TESTUDO, or TORTOISE. 

 Species— TESTUDO PANAMA Ching-Quaw. 



Character. — Body rounded and flattened, armed with scales 

 geometrically arranged, resembling a coat of mail, 

 legs very short, the head retractile, mouth armed 

 with a hooked bill closing over the under man- 

 dible. 



THIS Tortoise which is here represented for the first 

 time, is drawn from a live specimen, at present in the pos- 

 session of Capt. Hoffman, of Ealing; it has resided in 

 England for three years, and has preserved its health exceed- 

 ingly well. It is one of the smallest of its kind, hitherto 

 discovered, and is a native of those countries of South 

 America, adjoining to the Isthmus of Panama, inhabiting 

 the fresh water riveis and pools of that region, which is 

 called Terra Firma. Its general and favourite food consists 

 of a small quantity of dressed meat; in cold weather and the 

 nights of winter, it is constantly wrapped up in cotton, 

 which has been deemed necessary to preserve it from the 

 intemperate climate of Britain. 



There is no part of natural history which has been sub- 

 ject to more errors, as to particular descriptions, than the 

 genus Testudo ; there seems indeed at first sight, to be a 

 sort of natural division between the Tortoise, which has 

 its five claws more distinct and lives wholly upon the land, 

 and the Turtle, which exists chiefly as a marine animal, 

 and in which the claws are fin-shaped, or more obscure in 

 their markings, as well as irregular in their number. This 

 division, however, of the Tortoise from the Turtle, is very 



