OF SELBORNE. | 289 
opens a breathing-place in the ground near its head, 
requiring, | conclude, a freer respiration as it be- 
comes more alive. ‘This creature not only goes 
under the earth from the middle of November to 
the middle of April, but sleeps great part of the 
summer ; for it goes to bed in the longest days at 
four in the afternoon, and often does not stir in the 
morning till late. Besides, it retires to rest at ev- 
ery shower, and does not move at all in wet days, 
When one reflects on the state of this strange 
being, it is a matter of wonder to find that Provi- 
dence should bestow such a profusion of days, such 
a seeming waste of longevity, on a reptile that ap- 
pears to relish it so little as to squander more than 
two thirds of its existence in a joyless stupor, and 
be lost to all sensation for months together in the 
profoundest of slumbers. 
While I was writing this letter, a moist and warm 
afternoon, with the thermometer at 50°, brought 
forth troops of shell-snails ; and, at the same junc- 
ture, the tortoise heaved up the mould and put out 
its head, and the next morning came forth, as it 
were raised from the dead, and walked about till 
four in the afternoon. ‘This was a curious coinci- 
dence! a very amusing occurrence ! to see such a 
stnilarity of feeling between two @epeorxoc! for 
so the Greeks call both the shell snail and the tor- 
toise. 3 
Summer birds are, this cold and backward 
spring, unusually late: I have seen but one swal- 
low yet. This conformity with the weather con- 
vinces me more and more that they sleep in the 
winter. 
BB 
