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TORTOISES, TURTLES, AND PLESIOSAURS 



mainly, if not entirely carnivorous (as is indicated by the absence of a median ridge 

 in the front of the palate), the box tortoises appear to resemble the true tortoises 

 very closely in their general mode of life. According to some observers, they are 

 more frequently to be met with in dry and even hilly districts than in swamps. They 

 are, however, partial to spots where colonies of night herons are in the habit of nest- 

 ing, owing to the quantity of insects, snails, worms, and fragments of fish to be met 

 with in such localities, and they are frequently found in woods where the ground is 

 either moist or swampy. At times they will, however, enter the water of their own 

 free will, and they have been seen half buried under loose earth or moss in search of 

 worms and insects. Unlike most members of the family, the box tortoises shun the 



CAROLINA BOX TORTOISE. 



(One-half natural size. ) 



light, and are most active during the evening and night, shutting themselves closely 

 up in their shells when the sun is shining brightly. The closure of the shell is 

 also effected at the approach of any large animal, and when thus securely boxed up, 

 there are but few creatures these tortoises need fear. Like most other terrestrial 

 tortoises, the females lay their eggs in holes dug in the ground by themselves; the 

 number laid being usually only five or six, whether the parents be half grown or 

 adult. Each individual egg is carefully covered with earth; the time taken before 

 the young are hatched being said to vary from eighty-eight to one hundred days. 

 When first hatched, the young are well developed and of great relative size 



