260 Reptiles. 



ous errors? — and the future naturalist pronounce their requiem in the 

 words of Banquo, — 



" The earth hath bubbles as the water has, 

 And these are of them."? 



Adopting as my text-book the very excellent volume of Professor 

 Bell, on British Reptiles, I commence with the Testudinata, or tor- 

 toises; two species of which, from having been thrown upon our 

 coasts, hold a place in the British Fauna. Their occurrence is, how- 

 ever, so rare, that we may fairly presume Shakspeare had never seen 

 either of these marine turtles in a living state. That he was familiar 

 with the appearance of some species when dead, is more than proba- 

 ble ; for among the contents of the apothecary's shop, described by 

 Romeo, we have the tortoise mentioned in connexion with another 

 reptile from tropical climates. 



" And in his needy shop a tortoise hung, 

 An alligator stuffed, and other skins 

 Of ill-shaped fishes." 



That these aquatic animals were classed together by our bard under 

 the common appellation of " fishes," will not to the naturalist seem 

 surprising ; even at this day, in common language, and in accordance 

 with popular belief, the same term is applied to the Cetacea. If 

 Shakspeare had ever seen any species alive in England, it was most 

 probably the common land tortoise of the East, — Testudo Gr<Bca. 

 The apathy and slow movements of this creature may have suggested 

 the epithet which Prospero applies to Caliban — 



" Come forth thou tortoise." — Tempest, Act i. Scene ii. 



To the extreme longevity of the animal no reference is made, though it 

 is one of the most remarkable circumstances connected with its history. 

 One which lived at Peterborough could not have been less than two hun- 

 dred and twenty years old; and seven bishops had worn the mitre during 

 its sojourn there.* From facts such as these, which the naturalist re- 

 cords, the poet and the novelist draw " patines of bright gold." And 

 hence we read with new delight the beautiful description in Bulwer's 

 * Last Days of Pompeii,' of a tortoise, which " had been the guest of 

 the place for years before Glaucus purchased it; for years indeed 

 which went beyond the memory of man, and to which tradition as- 

 signed an almost incredible date. The house had been built and re- 

 built, its possessors had changed and fluctuated — generations had 



* Vide note to Sir Wm. Jardine's edition of White's Selborne. 



