TESTUDINIDAE 363 



which are passed, slugs, earthworms, maggots, and soft caterpillars. 

 Their fondness for slugs is all the more remarkable since scarcely 

 any other Vertebrate eats these slimy, sticky molluscs ; but a Box- 

 tortoise will make a meal of two or more fat specimens of the 

 black slug Arion, and it will eat dozens of small slugs. It 

 first deliberately smells the prey, turns the head sidewards and 

 gives a bite, whereupon first the intestines and then the rest 

 are eaten. The slime is later on scraped off with the fore- 

 limbs, or the head is rubbed against the grass. The favourite 

 time of feeding is towards dusk or in the early dewy morning, 

 and they are especially lively during a soft, warm rain. They 

 also relish various kinds of fungi and fruit, for instance half- 

 rotten bananas. Close observation of their habits gives us 

 indications as to how the change from carnivorous to herbivorous 

 habits may have taken place. Accidentally many a blade of 

 grass is bitten off and swallowed together with the molluscs, also 

 bits of rotten wood and moss, and their excrements are often full 

 of such more or less digested matter. They are not very fond 

 of basking, although they love warmth, creeping into the grass, 

 where they make a shallow form by moving the shell backwards 

 and forwards. During the cooler nights they frequently retire 

 into a hole or under a log of wood. They require to hibernate. If 

 kept in a warm house they become restless in the autumn, refuse 

 food, drink and feed again after some weeks, but are liable to die 

 during the winter. If they can find a cool place they bury 

 themselves and sleep for several months. If left out of doors 

 they dig into the ground, creep into a hole, at the bottom of 

 which they half bury themselves, or they hide under a heap of 

 garden-rubbish well out of the reach of frost. Warm April days 

 bring them out, and the first requirement is a drink. 



When walking about in search of food they assume a curious 

 attitude, with the shell well above the ground, the long neck 

 stretched out and raised high. Their temper varies individually. 

 Some become tame readily and lose all shyness, and creep up to 

 their friend to take food from his fingers. Others are decidedly 

 shy and sulky, withdrawing with a hiss into the shell, which in 

 some specimens shuts almost hermetically all round, and they do 

 not come out until all imaginary danger is past. One of my 

 males sulked thus for several months, at least we never saw any- 

 thing of it except the closed shell, but it did not starve itself. 



