62 



THE POPULJR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sections it is very common, in others extremely rare. On the ap- 

 proach of the frost, about the middle of October, the tortoise bur- 

 rows about a foot beneath the fallen leaves of the woods, or into 

 soft, marshy ground, and there passes the winter in a torpid 

 state. About the middle of April it digs its way upward again, 

 and may be seen crawling slowly about, covered with caked and 

 frozen mud. 



But the most remarkable ability of the little reptile is his 

 power to entirely withdraw himself within his shell, and then to 

 close up the openings. Observing the approach of an enemy, he 

 rapidly draws in his head, legs, and tail, giving expression to his 



displeasure by a sharp 

 iiiss ; then, folding up 

 the two flaps of the 

 lower shell until they 

 fit accurately into the 

 cup-shaped edge of the 

 upper, he becomes as 

 unopenable as an oys- 

 ter. In most cases the 

 fit of the carapace and 

 plastron is so perfect 

 that it would be diffi- 

 cult to insert the head 

 of a pin into any crack, 

 and the muscles are so 

 powerful as to render it 

 well-nigh impossible to 

 force an opening. Yet 

 the jaguar of South 

 America has been seen 

 to tear open the shells 

 of similarly protected 

 tortoises. We may feel 

 assured that the protection is a needed one, for it is very rare to 

 find an old box tortoise whose shell does not show marks of rough 

 usage. 



There is a well-grounded popular belief that our tortoise lives 

 to a vast age, and numerous cases of turtles bearing dates over a 

 century old have been cited. There was, until 1886, in the neigh- 

 borhood of the writer's home in New Jersey, an old tortoise which 

 had been marked by Mr. Cyrus Durand, the inventor of the geo- 

 metric lathe It bore the inscription " C. D. 1838," clearly cut with 

 a graver, on its under shell. As the tortoise had been observed 

 from year to year since the time of its marking by the most trust- 

 worthy witnesses, there can be no doubt that the date was gen- 



Fig. 2. Under Side, showing Closed Shell. 



