240 NATURAL HISTORY 



As it will be under my eye, I shall now have an oppor- 

 tunity of enlarging rny observations on it's mode of life, and 

 propensities ; and perceive, already that, towards the time 

 of coming forth, it opens a breathing place in the ground 

 near it's head, requiring, I conclude, a freer respiration, as it 

 becomes 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 for 

 every 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 Providence should bestow 

 such a profusion of days, such a seeming waste of longevity, 

 on a reptile that appears to relish it so little as to squander 

 more than two thirds of it's 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 after- 

 noon, with the thermometer at 50, brought forth troops of 

 shell-snails ; and, at the same juncture, the tortoise heaved up 



* [I still have no doubt of the correctness of the opinion I formerly 

 expressed, that the tortoise " Timothy " was the Testudo marginata ; at 

 the same time Mr. Bennett's opinion that it was distinct and undescribed 

 is worthy of attention. Although, therefore, it was not that " his wish 

 was father to the thought," yet it was doubtless gratifying to be able to 

 perpetuate the relation between the favourite reptile and his reverend 

 owner and biographer by naming it after him " T. WJiitei." The shell, 

 which is well figured in Mr. Bennett's edition, at page 361, is in the 

 British Museum, to which it was presented by Miss Georgina White. 



While on the subject of Tortoises, I may refer to a letter from Gilbert 

 White to his brother John, dated September 26, 1774, in which will be 

 found a most interesting allusion to a particular form of the sternum in 

 certain Tortoises, showing that he was the first who detected the differ- 

 ence in the "box tortoises," in which the anterior and posterior portions 

 of the sternum are moveable with a distinct hinge, as in the genus Cistudo 

 for example. The whole of this account is very interesting, and worthy 

 of the acute observation for which the writer was so eminently distin- 

 guished. It will be found in the Appendix, as well as John White's 

 letter to Linnaeus, in which no mention is made of the real- discoverer. 

 T. B.] 



