8238 



Reptiles. 



On the Geographical Distribution of the European Fresh-water Tortoise (Emys 

 lutaria). — In the notice of ray lately-published paper ' On the Zoology of Ancient 

 Europe,' which you did me the honour to insert in the last number of the ' Zoologist/ 

 there occurs a statement likely to mislead some of your readers. You speak of the 

 European fresh-water tortoise {Emys lutaria) as "never having been found in the 

 North of France, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden or Norway " (Zool. 8190). 

 Now in my pamphlet (pp. 22,23) I ciled the cases of the remains of no less than four 

 individuals of this species which are recorded by Professors Dalman and Nilsson as 

 having been found in Sweden under circumstances very similar to those discovered by 

 Mr. Birch in this neighbourhood. T besides mentioned the curious fact of the capture 

 of a living specimen, many years ago, in that country, adding, however, that Professor 

 Nilsson supposed at the time that it must have been an imported animal. I also 

 showed, on Professor Steenstrup's authority, that bones of three different examples 

 had been found in Denmark, under conditions substantially the same as the Norfolk 

 specimens.— A Ifred Newton; Elveden -Hall, Thetford, October 10, 1862. 



[I should have perhaps expressed my meaning more clearly had I written " never 

 having been found living and indigenous in the North," &c. The occurrence of fossil 

 tortoises and tortoise remains, both on the Continent aud in Britain, is very familiar 

 to geologists: I never intended to call in question statements universally accredited; 

 but, injustice to Mr. Newton, I have much pleasure in extracting entire, the passages 

 to which he refers. — E. Newman."] 



" The first notice of the discovery of a fossil tortoise in Sweden seems to be by 

 Professor Dalman, who gives an account (Vetensk. Acad. Handl. 1820, II. p. 286, 

 tabb. vi., vii.) of some remains found in digging the Gotha canal, near Norsholm, in 

 CEstergothland. They appear to have been in peat earth, over which a bed of gravel 

 had been super-imposed. About twenty years later Professor Nilsson (Vetensk. Acad. 

 Handl., 1839, pp. 194, 210) noticed a like discovery made in two places — Grafve in 

 the pastorate of Bragarps, and Fuglie in that of Hvallinge — both in Scania, and then 

 pointed out what seemed to him to be some differences between the well-known Emys 

 lutaria and the Swedish examples, which he separated as ' var. borealis.' In 1842, the 

 same naturalist states (Skandinavisk Herpetologi, p. 11, note) that more than twenty 

 years previously he had received, through a student, a living specimen of the Euro- 

 pean water-tortoise, captured near Falsterbo, the extreme south of Sweden, which, at 

 the time, he thought must be an imported animal, accidentally escaped, and so neg- 

 lected to make further enquiries respecting it. He likewise added that he had 

 recently obtained from another source fragments of a fossil water-tortoise found in a 

 moss in (Eland. This he identifies with the modern Emys lutaria, and appears con- 

 tent to allow his own variety 'borealis' to sink into oblivion, as if doubtful of its 

 validity even as a local race. For the occurrence of tortoise-remains in Dauish bogs, 

 I can only refer to a statement made by Professor Steenstrup (Overs. Vid. Selsk. 

 Forhandl. 1848, p. 74) respecting an imperfect example of the 'Emys lutaria, var. 

 borealis, Nilsson,' found in a moss at Overdraaby, in Zealand ; while, a few years 

 later, he announced (Overs. &c, 1855, p. 1) the discovery of the dorsal and sternal 

 shields of another individual in a moss at Egholm, not far from the last-mentioned 

 locality, and it is also stated (op. cit., p. 184) that the remains of a third — but 

 smaller and younger example — had since been obtained at the same spot." 



The Fresh-water Tortoise an Inhabitant of Great Britain. — I was exceedingly 

 startled to read, in the last number of the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 8190), an extract from 



