58 REPTILES 



supposed to be about two hundred years old, but this can only be 

 taken as a general statement to the effect that it was of great age. 



As might be expected from their cold blood and low organ- 

 isation, reptiles display great vitality and power of recuperation 

 from injury, although, as already mentioned, they will not stand 

 being frozen. The most striking instances of this vitality are 

 recorded in the case of the turtles, in which the heart will con- 

 tinue to beat for several hours after it has been removed from 

 the body, while the flesh may be cut piece-meal from the body 

 till little more than the skeleton remains before life becomes 

 extinct. According to Sir J. Emerson Tennent, it was the 

 custom in his time in Ceylon to cut pieces from the flesh of 

 living turtles and sell them to customers as required. Again, 

 as is mentioned elsewhere, it was the practice of the natives of the 

 Galapagos Islands to cut a slit near the tail of the giant tortoises 

 so as to reveal the interior of the body, and thus permit of 

 ascertaining whether the reptile was sufficiently fat to be worth 

 killing. If its condition was not found to be satisfactory in 

 this respect, it was let loose, when it recovered without difficulty 

 from the operation. 



Closely connected with their vitality is the power possessed 

 by many or most reptiles of regenerating lost parts. The most 

 familiar and striking example of this power is afforded by the 

 ease with which many lizards grow a new tail, or part of a tail, 

 after having discarded a large portion of this appendage as a 

 protective measure. Since this phenomenon is described in a 

 later chapter, it need not be alluded to further on this occasion ; 

 but it may be added that the power of discarding the tail and 

 growing a new one is also exhibited by the New Zealand tuatera. 



As regards chelonians, Sir J. E. Tennent states that in 

 Ceylon when the horny plates are stripped off the hawksbill 

 turtle {Chelone imbricata)^ after roasting the reptile over a fire, 

 they are regenerated after the creature has been returned to 

 the sea. It is affirmed in proof of this that no turtles are 

 caught in a mutilated condition, but this, if the original state- 

 ment be true, may be due to the circumstance that their sufferings 

 are ended by death. On the other hand, Dr. Charles Hose 

 states that turtles are caught in Borneo showing signs of having 

 lost their horny plates, which have been replaced by thin and 

 imperfectly grown ones of no commercial value. 



