324 ORDERS OF REPTILES— TORTOISES, TERRAPINS AND TURTLES 
The following is a common-sense grouping of 3 inches, with a height of shell of 20 inches, was 
the members of the Order Chelonia, as found in estimated to be 400 years old ! Its age was esti- 
North America and the seas adjacent: mated by comparison with other Giant Tor- 
SYNOPSIS OF THE ORDER OF TORTOISES AND TURTLES. 
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SUBORDERS. 
LAND TOR- 
TOISES: 
EXAMPLES. 
Common Tortoises, 
Box Tortoises , 1 
Smooth-Shelled 
Terrapins, 
TES- TU-DIN'I-DAE, 
KIN-O-STER' Nl-DAE, 
E-MYD'I-DAE, . . 
FRESH-WATER 
TERRAPINS: { Snapping Terrapins, che-ly'dri-dae. 
Soft-Shelled Ter- ) 
rapins, j 
TRI-O-NYCH' I-DAE, 
C Giant Tortoise. 
• -j Gopher Tortoise. 
( Common Box Tortoise. 
. Musk-Terrapin. 
(j Painted Terrapin. 
• - Wood-Terrapin. 
( Diamond-Back. 
j Alligator-Terrapin. 
' i Snapping Terrapin. 
. Soft-Shelled Terrapin. 
SEA-TURTLES 
\ Hard-Sheli 
l Le 
CHE-LON'I-DAE, 
athery-Shelled, 
j Hawksbill. 
' ( Green Turtle. 
DER-MO-CHE-L YD' I-DAE, Harp-Turtle. 
THE TORTOISE FAMILY. 
Testudinidae. 
The group of tortoises contains many species 
that are either beautiful, or curious, or remark- 
able for their size and age. Quite a number of 
species are handsomely colored, but the majority 
are perfectly plain. 
Two distinct types have been developed. The 
ordinary, thick-shelled, uncolored tortoises, some 
of them of great size, constitute the majority of 
the species. The smaller section is made up of 
small tortoises, some of which have a practical 
hinge in the centre of the lower shell. These are 
strictly land-going animals, and some of them 
even burrow in the earth, in sandy situations 
where digging is easy. 
The Giant Tortoise 2 is a good species to lead 
this entire Order. If there be aught in the theory 
of “the survival of the fittest,” then this creature 
is clearly entitled to the leading position. A 
specimen at the New York Zoological Park, 
which weighed 310 pounds, and whose shell 
measured on its curves 4 feet 74 inches by 4 feet 
toises which, according to authentic history, 
have been in captivity over 100 years. 
This wonderful creature lived all- save the last 
two years of its life on the Galapagos Islands, a 
group of burnt-out volcanoes, and mountains of 
rock covered with brush, cacti and lava, directly 
on the equator, 500 miles -west of Ecuador. Six 
species of Giant Tortoises inhabit that archipel- 
ago, living chiefly upon cacti and coarse grass, 
but all of them are now being exterminated at a 
very rapid rate either for the paltry amount of oil 
they contain, or a few pounds of meat from each. 
An ignorant cattle-herder thinks nothing of kill- 
ing a Tortoise 300 years old for three pounds of 
meat, nothing more! In the interests of science, 
and her own reputation, Ecuador should pro- 
hibit henceforth the wanton and wasteful killing 
of those remarkable creatures. 
With the exception of the crocodilians, the 
Giant Tortoises inhabiting the Galapagos Islands, 
and two islands in the Indian Ocean, are the only 
survivors of the famous reptilian age, when a 
warm atmosphere heavily charged with moisture 
called forth luxuriant vegetation, which nour- 
1 By some authorities on the classification of reptiles, the Box Tortoises are placed in the Family Kino- 
stermdae, one of the divisions of the Fresh-Water Terrapins. If this arrangement should be followed, it 
would take the Box Tortoises out of the group of Land Tortoises, where they really belong. With this 
explanation the author elects to preserve the very useful arrangement into land, fresh-water and marine 
groups, as set forth above, and leave the Box Tortoises in the Family Testudinidce. 
2 Tes-tu'do vi-ci'na. 
