358 CIIELONIA 



CHAP. 



handled, they no longer void these glands. Thej always with- 

 draw into tlie water for the night, and the cold season is spent in 

 the mud. Their time of propagation is still somewhat doubtful. 

 Very young tortoises are met with in the Peninsula in March, 

 when they are already in the rivers. Those which I imported 

 in the summer and autumn invariably dug their nests and laid 

 their long, oval eggs (28 to 33 mm. long) in the month of 

 November, pairing having taken place some two or three months 

 previously. The mode of making the nest is exactly the same as 

 that described for Emys. As most of my specimens were kept in a 

 greenhouse with a permanent current of warm water through 

 their tanks, they never hibernated, nor did they pass through a 

 torpid time in the summer, but they showed an irresistible love 

 for the hot-w^ater pipes, huddling together by the dozen, so that 

 tlie pipes had to be screened off to prevent the creatures from 

 getting burnt. Until this precaution was taken, they heated 

 themselves so much that the shields and even the bones of the 

 plastron were injured. The artificial warm temperature and the 

 complete suppression of seasonal rest had no bad influence, most 

 of the tortoises living with undiminished appetite for more than 

 twelve years, l)ut the sexual period became disturbed, pairing 

 occurring ultimately at all times of the year. The eagerness of 

 the males, however, had a peculiar evil secondary influence upon 

 the females. The male tries to fasten on to its mate by biting 

 into the collar-like fold of the neck into which the head is with- 

 drawn, and this repeated irritation produces sores and swellings, 

 which latter in their turn prevent the female from wiping the 

 eyes with the back of the fore-limbs, a haliit common to most, if 

 not all, tortoises. Ultimately the eyes fester, and the tortoise, 

 becoming practically lilind, falls oft' its feed, leaves the water, 

 wdiich makes matters worse, and is very difficult to cure. 



In other respects they are very hardy, and they stand 

 acclimatisation in England perfectly. Some, thriving in a deep 

 concreted pond, passed through the very severe winters of several 

 years ago, hiding in the mud below the ice, and appeared in 

 the spring in perfect health. They can also successfully pass the 

 winter under moss and a heap of loose garden-rubbish. 



C. caspica is closely allied to C. leprosa, which it represents in 

 the Balkan Peninsula and in ^Vsia Minor. It differs from the 

 south-western species chiefly by having the cutting edges of the 



