The Natural History of Selborne 2 1 1 



till the thirteenth of November, yet the work remained 

 unfinished. Harsher weather, and frosty mornings, would 

 have quickened its operations. No part of its behaviour ever 

 struck me more than the extreme timidity it always expresses 

 with regard to rain; for though it has a shell that would 

 secure it against the wheel of a loaded cart, yet does it dis- 

 cover as much solicitude about rain as a lady dressed in all 

 her best attire, shuffling away on the first sprinklings, and 

 running its head up in a corner. If attended to, it becomes 

 an excellent weather-glass ; for as sure as it walks elate, and 

 as it were on tiptoe, feeding with great earnestness in a 

 morning, so sure will it rain before night. It is totally a 

 diurnal animal, and never pretends to stir after it becomes 

 dark. The tortoise, like other reptiles, has an arbitrary 

 stomach as well as lungs ; and can refrain from eating as 

 well as breathing for a great part of the year. When first 

 awakened it eats nothing; nor again in the autumn before it 

 retires : through the height of the summer it feeds voraciously, 

 devouring all the food that comes in its way. I was much 

 taken with its sagacity in discerning those that do it kind 

 offices : for, as soon as the good old lady comes in sight who 

 has waited on it for more than thirty years, it hobbles towards 

 its benefactress with awkward alacrity ; but remains inattentive 

 to strangers. Thus not only " the ox knoweth his owner, and 

 the ass his master's crib," * but the most abject reptile and 

 torpid of beings distinguishes the hand that feeds it, and is 

 touched with the feelings of gratitude ! 



I am, &c. &c. 



P.S. In about three days after I left Sussex the tortoise 

 retired into the ground under the hepatica. 



* Isaiah i. 3. 



