family, Sphargis mercurialis, is common on the coasts of the Mediterranean;
and is supposed to have furnished the body of the ancient lyre ; and hence the
tortoise was dedicated to Mercury, the fahled inventor of that instrument. It
is however scarcely probable that the ancients generally discriminated between
the different marine species,—those three at least which are covered with horny
plates,—excepting for the purposes of commerce.
It was probably to Terrapene europoea, the common lake tortoise of the South
of Europe, that the death of the celebrated dramatic poet Æschylus was attributed
; as Pliny distinctly states that the eagle, through whose means the
catastrophe occurred, is a frequenter of lakes. He, to avoid the fulfilment of
an augury, which threatened him with death by means of a falling house, is
said to have gone into the fields, where an eagle, carrying aloft a tortoise in his
talons, and mistaking the bald head of the poet for a round smooth stone, let his
prey fall upon it in order to break the shell, and broke, instead thereof, the
skull of the gifted and eloquent victim of this fatal mistake*.
It is unnecessary however, and would be equally unsatisfactory, to trace thé
vague and uncertain notices given by the writers of the earlier ages, respecting
these animals. Even when the mutual intercourse of distant countries had bè-
come greatly extended, and commerce had gradually enlarged our information
respecting the natural productions of the remotest parts of the world, the
animals in question still remained little known and imperfectly distinguished.
It matters little, indeed, what species were known to such authors as Aldrovan-
dus, or Bontius and Piso, or what were the originals intended to be represented
by the barbarous caricatures, which rather obscured than illustrated the works
of that period. But passing by the older writers, it is matter of no small disappointment
to find that even the great Father of method, the illustrious Lin-
* “ Tertii (generis Aquilarum) Morphnos, quam Homerus et Percnon vocat, aliqui et Plancnum, et anatinam, secunda magnitudine'et
vi : huicque viia area lacus. Ingenium est ei testudines raptas frangere e sublimi jaciendo : quæ sors interemit poetam Æschylum,
præditum fatis (ut ferunt) ejus diei ruinam secura cceli fide caventem.” Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. x. cap. 3.
It is a curious, coincidence that the eagles of South Africa are generally believed to have a similar instinct to that attributed to the
species alluded to by Pliny. The account is given in the Voyage of Kolbe to the Cape of Good Hope; but as I have not the work to
refer to, I give it as quoted by Daudin. “ Suivant ce voyageur les grands aigles de mer, nommés orfraies, sont très-avides de la tortue •
malgré toute la force de leur bec et de leurs serres, ils ne pourroient briser sa dure enveloppe ; mais ils l’enlèvent aisément, ils l’emportent
au plus haut des airs, d’où ils la laissent tomber à plusieurs reprises sur des rochers très durs ; la hauteur de la chûte et la très
grande vitesse qui en résulte produisent un choc violent; et la couverture de la tortue; bientôt brisée, livre en proie à l’aigle carnassier,
l’animal qu’elle àuroit mis à couvert, si un poids plus considérable avoit résisté aux efforts de l’aigle pour l’enlever dans les nues.”
Daud. Hist. Rept, ii. p. 300.
naeus, is so vague and general in his specific characters, as often to leave us to
mere conjecture as to the species which he designs ; the characters of which
he constitutes his specific distinctions being, in many instances, such as apply
generally to a whole group, and, with some exceptions, to the greater part
of the order. Of him in fact who consults the genus Testudo of the Systerna
Natura:, it may be said without : exaggeration, in the words of Schcepff,
“ Inveniet enim nomina vaga, descriptiones plerasque mancas, ambiguas, in
diversissima ssepè quadrantes. ammalia, immo et diversissimis applicatasi
Gmelin indeed acknowledges, “ Similitudinem structure in generalibus, varie-
tatem singularum specierum pro varia astate, cognitionem plurium in variis vitae
periodis imperfectam esse, et difficilem reddere testudinum diagnosin et mancam
illarum historiam.” In this passage are contained the:-most striking causes of
that uncertainty and vagueness which rendered the Sy sterna Natura: so unsatisfactory
an authority, as it regards these animals ; still it must be granted that this
great naturalist ascertained, with considerable accuracy, the characters which
distinguish the marine, the lacustrine,.and the terrestrial forms; and it is probable
that, had he been acquainted with a greater number of species, he would
have acquired those accurate views of the relations and value of their characters,
which would have constrained him to multiply his genera, and probably also
to appreciate the real rank and importance of the whole group.
There cannot be a higher practical attestation to the merits of this extraordinary
man, than the fact, that even the most bigoted admirers of modern systems,
who follow novelty for its own sake—no less than those more original and
philosophical investigators of nature, who are obliged, by the very increase of
their information, to acknowledge the deficiencies of his system—are constrained
to adopt most of his groups, though they may assign to them a different grade
in the scale. It is unpleasing to witness the paltry attempts which are every
day made by the pygmies of science, to underrate and cavil at the views of that
giant mind, whom they only affect to depreciate because they are unable to comprehend
him. It is not, however, to the servile herd of imitators, that this
attempt to preach a sort of crusade against the merits and memory of Linnaeus
is confined : some of the most gifted of our contemporaries, whose talents and
acquirements give them a legitimate claim to more positive and independent
b