450 Liitnaan Society. 



sufficient depth to escape the frost. About the 20th of April the sur- 

 vivors reappear in a feeble state, until invigorated by the returning' 

 warmth. 



Mr. Ord kept a number of these Tortoises for several years in his 

 garden, where they had an ample range, abundance of suitable food, 

 and convenient places of winter resort. They regularly deposited 

 their eggs, but seldom produced young, a circumstance which he at- 

 tributes to the destruction of the eggs by ants. He gives from his 

 books of memoranda the details of observations made in the years 

 1814 and 1832 on their mode of laying and depositing their eggs, 

 and the circumstances attending their hatching. 



The earliest deposit observed took place on the 22nd of June 1814. 

 The Tortoise scooped out the earth with her hinder feet, using them 

 alternately, as deep as she could reach, when the earth at the bottom 

 of the hole was loosened. The first egg was secured in this loose 

 earth, and five other eggs were laid and deposited in the same man- 

 ner, at intervals of four or five minutes, the earth being scraped from 

 the sides of the hole and carefully pressed upon each egg as it was 

 deposited, and the hole itself being finally covered over with the 

 loose earth carefully packed and pressed. The animal kept in one 

 position during the whole process, not looking once at the deposit. 

 The eggs appeared to pass with facility, and shortly after laying the 

 last egg, she uttered a guttural sound, several times repeated. The 

 number of eggs appears to vary from three to six. 



In June 1832 Mr. Ord renewed his observations. Two of the 

 female Tortoises then in his possession having been disturbed when 

 about to lay, abandoned the place ; one of these laid on the subsequent 

 day, and the other not until the second day after, whence Mr. Ord 

 concludes that they possess the power of retaining their eggs under 

 certain circumstances. The eggs were always laid about or after sun- 

 set ; and some of the Tortoises, if not all, laid twice during the season. 

 Of a deposit made on the 28th of June, one of the eggs (that nearest 

 the surface) was hatched on the 24th of September. On struggling 

 out of the shell the young animal seemed to be almost blind ; its case 

 was very soft and cartilaginous ; and in the centre of the under shell, 

 or between the abdominal and the femoral shields, there was a large 

 umbilical process. It measured an inch in length and could crawl 

 with ease. On the 14th of October another young Tortoise made 

 its appearance from the same deposit ; it was livelier and larger than 

 that first hatched, measuring an inch and three-quarters in length, 

 and its eyes were completely open. Mr. Ord conjectures that it had 

 emerged from its shell some days previously, but had only then made 

 its way to the surface. On the 15th another made its appearance, of a 

 size between the other two ; and on the same day Mr. Ord inspected 

 the deposit and found a fourth young one, still in its shell, but strug- 

 gling to get free, in which it succeeded during the afternoon. It was 

 rather larger than any of the rest, and had remained in the shell one 

 and twenty days longer than the first. On the 29th of September, 

 Mr. Ord examined a deposit of eggs laid on the 26th of June. None 

 appeared to have hatched, but the shell of the uppermost having 



