11 4 CLASSIFICATION OP AMPHIBIANS. 



like those of the elephaPit ; and the toes are furnished 

 with short blunt claws. They are generally dispersed 

 in all the warm and temperate latitudes^ but do not ex- 

 tend so far norths in Europe^ as our island. Their tails 

 are short and thick, and their shell is of a more or less 

 globular form. Of seventeen described species enumer- 

 ated by Mr. Gray, thirteen belong to the typical genus; 

 the others are placed in the genera Chirsina, Kinyxis, and 

 Pyxis. 2. The EmydcB, or freshwater tortoises, are much 

 more numerous than the last; and they are eminently 

 distinguished from the land tortoises by living almost 

 entirely in water. Rivers, ponds, and clear running 

 streams, seem to be their favourite haunts. They have 

 been correctly described as most active and rapid in their 

 movements ; for although we frequently saw these ani- 

 mals in the shallow rivulets of the Peloponnesus, we never 

 succeeded in capturing them' by the hand : when dis- 

 turbed, they bury themselves in the mud, and the dis- 

 colouration of the water thus deceives their enemies. 

 They feed not only upon aquatic worms, insects, and 

 shells, but even upon carrion / thus differing, by their 

 carnivorous habits, entirely from the land tortoises : to 

 32 ^-,.,^.,^^^ assist them in swimming, they 



are furnished witli webbed or 

 palmated feet {^fig. 32.), the 

 toes are distinct, and the claws 

 not unfrequently are very long. 

 The neck is contractile into the 

 body of the shell, and, as Mr. Gray observes, the caudal 

 pair of plates are separated by a distinct suture : the shell 

 generally is much more depressed than that of the land 

 tortoises. A great number of genera have been recently 

 proposed in this- group, chiefly founded upon very trivial 

 modifications in the structure of the shell, which we do 

 not, however, adopt. 



(117.) The marine turtles (CAe/o72?rf<«) are few in num- 

 ber : the feet, as before remarked, now assume the form 

 and office of fins or paddles ; hence they live almost en- 

 tirely at sea, feeding either upon marine plants, or on mol- 



