REPTILIA. 
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A third bony ramification, larger than the two others, and directed backwards and down- 
wards, represents, as in Birds, the coracoid apophysis ; but its extremity remains free. 
The lungs are much extended, and situate in the same cavity with the other viscera. The 
thorax being in the greater number immoveable, it is by the action of the mouth that the 
Tortoise breathes, by holding its jaws firmly closed, and alternately depressing and raising 
the hyoid bone : the first of these movements permits the air to enter by the nostrils ; when, 
the tongue immediately closing their internal aperture, this second operation forces the air 
into the lungs. The same mechanism occurs in the Eatrachians. 
Tortoises have no teeth ^ hut their jaws are invested with horn like those of Birds, except 
in the Chelydes, in w^hich they are merely covered with skin. Their ear-drum and palatal 
arches are fixed to the skull, and immoveable ; their tongue is short, and beset with fleshy 
papillse ; their stomach simple and strong ; their intestines of mean length, and without a 
coecum ; and they have a very large bladder. The male has a simple penis of considerable 
size ; and the female produces eggs covered with a hard shell. The male may often be 
recognized externally, by the concave form of the breast-plate. * 
These animals are very retentive of life, and will continue to move for many w^eeks after j 
having been deprived of the head. They require very little nourishment, and can pass whole 
months and even years without eating. Linnaeus united them all in the genus of 
The Tortoises {Testudo, Lin.), — 
Which have been divided into five subgenera, principally after the for^n and teguments of their 
carapaces and feet. 
The Land-tortoises {Testudo, Brongniart) — 
Have a bulged carapace, sustained by a bony skeleton wholly solid, and anchylosed for the greater 
part to the lateral edges of the breast-plate ; their legs are truncated, with very short toes connected 
almost to the nails, and are capable, together with the head, of being completely withdrawn into the 
armour ; the fore-feet have five nails, and the hinder four, all thick and conical. Several species 
subsist on vegetable matter. 
The Greek Tortoise (T. grceca, Lin.), is that which is commonest in Europe. It inhabits Greece, Italy, Sardinia, 
and (it would appear) all round the Mediterranean ; is rarely a foot long ; feeds on leaves, fruit, insects and 
worms ; and burrows a hole in which it passes the winter : it engenders in spring, and lays four or five eggs 
resembling those of Pigeons. 
Among the foreign species, there are several in the East Indies of enormous size, measuring three feet and 
upwards in length. One is more particularly known as the Indian Tortoise (T. indica, Vosm.), of a deep brown 
colour, with the carapace compressed in fx'ont, and its anterior border reverted above the head. Others are 
remarkable for the pleasing distribution of their colours, as the Geometrical T. (T. geometrica, Lin.), a small 
species with a black carapace, each scale of which is regularly adorned with yellow lines radiating from a disk of 
the same colour. A nearly similar but much larger kind (T. radiata) inhabits New Holland. 
Some species (the Pyxis, Bell), have the anterior portion of the mouth moveable, as in the Terrapins ; and 
others (the Kinixys of the same naturalist) can move the hinder part of their carapace, but we have some reason 
to suspect that this latter conformation is merely accidental. 
The Emydes, or Freshwater Tortoises {Emys, Brongniart) — 
Have no other eonstant characters to distinguish them from the preceding, beyond the further sepa- 
ration of their toes, w'hich are also terminated by longer nails, and the intervals between them are 
occupied by membranes, though they grade even in this particular. They also possess five nails before 
and four behind. The structure of their feet adapts them to more aquatic habits. The greater 
number live on insects, small fish, &c. ; and their envelope is generally flatter than in the Land-tortoises. 
That of Europe (T. europea, Schn. ; T. orbicularis, Lin.), is the most widely dilfused, and inhabits all the south 
and east of Europe as far as Prussia. It attains a length of ten inches, and its flesh is eaten, with a view to which 
it is fed upon bread and tender herbage ; but it also subsists on insects, slugs, small fish, &c. Marsigni states 
that its eggs require a year to hatch. The Painted Eroyde (T. picta, Schaelf.) is one of the prettiest species, brown, 
with each scale encircled with a yellow riband, more wide in front. It is found in North America among the 
reeds, upon the rocks, or on the trunks of trees, from which it falls into the water on being approached. There 
are very many others. 
M. Fitzinger separates, under the name of Clielodina, and Mr. Bell under that of Hydraspis, those species which 
have an elongated neck, as Em. longicollis, Shaw, &c. 
Among the Fresh-wafer Tortoises may be noticed more particularly, 
