352 T^he Natural History of Selborne 



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 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 after- 

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

 shell-snails; and at the same juncture, 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 coincidence ! a 

 very amusing occurrence ! to see such a similarity of feelings 

 between the two fyepzoiicoi ! for so the Greeks called both 

 the shell-snail and the tortoise. 



Summer birds are, this cold and backward spring, unusu- 

 ally late : I have seen but one swallow yet. This conformity 

 with the weather convinces me more and more that they sleep 

 in the winter. 1 



1 Still harking back to the same old error. ED. 



