Zoology. 199 



have been taken in many situations far distant from each other. South Ame- 

 rica also produces anomalous Emydes, possessing an organization which enables 

 them to live habitually in the water. E. chelys, a species very remarkable from 

 the singular form of some of its parts, inhabits the marshes of Cayenne and the 

 province of Para ; E. platycephala, common throughout Brazil and Surinam, 

 belongs to the long-necked section, a small group characterized by habits still 

 more peculiarly aquatic. Following these Emydes may naturally be placed the 

 E. expansa and Dumerilii, species of large size which inhabit the banks of the 

 Maranon and its tributaries. Finally, the E. punctularia and scorpioides, com- 

 mon both in the same situations and in Guiana, and differing from the preced- 

 ing, the one to approach the typical forms of the genus, the other to the E. odo- 

 rata, which it replaces in Southern America, and of which it is even suspected 

 to be a variety consequent to the difference of climate. 



Africa presents to us in reference to the geographical distribution of the Che- 

 lones, phenomena entirely different from those which we observed in the new 

 world. The barren plains of this immense peninsula give rise only to torrents 

 whose waters, absorbed during summer in the moving sands, are exhausted and 

 dried up by the influence of the tropical heats. It is to this that we must attribute 

 the existence of that small number of fresh water species, compared with the 

 very considerable amount of those spread over America, and it is also from this 

 reason that Africa maintains so many terrestrial Chelones. A single Emys, E. 

 galeata, from the group of the long-necked Emydes, inhabits the rivers of the 

 Cape, and is found also in Senegal. It appears that the Nile wants them en- 

 tirely, for this river maintains only a single species of Trionyx, distributed also 

 over a great part of Africa which lies under the tropics. But this vast con- 

 tinent with its neighbouring islands produces seven different species of land tor- 

 toises, or rather the whole known species of the genus, with the exception of 

 that from America. Three of these, Test, angulata, areolata, and geometrica, in- 

 habit the vicinity of Cape Town, but they are at the same time found in Mada- 

 gascar, and the first has been observed at Sierra Leone. The Testt. pardalis is 

 found on the eastern part of the colony of the Cape ; the Test, radiata at Mada- 

 gascar, and perhaps also in Senegal and Abyssinia. The Tes: . Indica is now in- 

 digenous to Madagascar, and also on the neighbouring islets, though it has been 

 exterminated from those on which Europeans have been established. The Test. 

 Greca again is only found on the northern coast of Africa from the states of 

 Barbary to Syria. 



The same land tortoise ( Test. Greca, the only European species,) frequents, in 

 this part of the world, the well-watered countries of the Mediterranean, from the 

 •Morea to France. These parts produce an Emys, E. Europea, which inhabits also 

 Germany and Prussia, and has been found upon the Wolga ; but the second Eu- 

 ropean species of the genus E. vulgaris has only been observed in Spain, in Dal- 

 matia, on the Morea, and on the shores of the Caspian sea. 



Asia is inhabited by a very considerable number of fresh water toitoises, 

 but this vast extent of country only maintains a few species of land tortoises. We 

 have already stated that the Test. Greca inhabits a part of Syria; the Test, geo- 

 metrica, an African species, is found also in the island of Ceylon ; but the exist- 

 ence of the Test. Indica in a natural state upon the coast of Coromandel, re- 

 quires yet to be confirmed by more accurate observations. Of the six known 

 species of Trionyx, no less than five inhabit the rivers of Southern Asia. One 

 has been observed in the Euphrates, which is perhaps identical with the Trionyx 



