Timothy A Jand tortoisC) which has been kept for thirty 



*^ C years in a little walled court belonging to the 



IOPtoi$C house where I am now visiting, retires under- 

 ground about the middle of November, and comes 

 forth again about the middle of April. 



When it first appears in the spring, it discovers very little incli- 

 nation towards food, but in the height of summer grows voracious, 

 and then, as the summer declines, its appetite declines ; so that for 

 the last six weeks in autumn it hardly eats at all. 



Milky plants, such as lettuces, dandelions, sow-thistles, are its 

 favourite dish. 



In a neighbouring village one was kept till, by tradition, it was 

 supposed to be an hundred years old an instance of vast longevity 

 in such a poor reptile ! 



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 discover as much solicitude about rain as a lady dressed in 

 all her best attire shuffling away on the first sprinklings, and run- 

 ning its head up in a corner. If attended to, it becomes an ex- 

 cellent 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 G. W. 



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