99 
their life varies in length from twelve to twenty 
years”. Perhaps the lives of smaller birds vary 
within these limits. Bingley quotes good authority 
for a goldfinch which reached the age of twenty. 
They attain their full size in about six months. 
Turtles and tortoises are slow of growth, and 
very long lived’. “ Frogs do not arrive at maturity 
till their fourth year, though they hardly live above 
twelve.” Stewart’s Elements of Nat. Hist.—Of the 
ages of the ophidia I find no record. Vipers are 
said to attain their full growth in seven years; but 
to produce in their second or third. (Bingley.) 
The carp is said to live 200 years; the pike 260°. 
(Stark’s Elements.) They are said to attain their full 
growth in three years. The minnow attains its full 
size in six months, and is reported to live only three 
years: but I have forgotten my authority. They 
appear in March, and disappear in October, probably 
leaving the shallower for the deeper water. Trouts 
live nine or ten years. (Bingley.) 
Of crustacea I find no memoranda in any author 
to which I have any means of access which relate 
to their growth or length of life. As they vary 
much in size, so we may venture from analogy to 
* Pigeons are said to live about twenty years. 
@ Lambeth tortoise lived 120 years. 
> There is a common story of a pike caught in Germany which 
had fixed to it a brasen ring, with an inscription, purporting that 
it was put into the lake by the governor of the universe, Frederick 
the Second, in the year 1230. It was taken in 1497, being then 
above 267 years of age. Bingley mentions a carp at Cambridge 
above 70 years old, and Gesner speaks of one above 100. 
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