Timothy the Tortoise 



MR. WHITE was always much amused by the ways of 

 the pet tortoise he kept in his garden at Selborne. 

 Timothy, as he was called, was honoured by having 

 many records made of his movements, all written with 

 rare touches of kindliness and humour, as if the mere 

 mention of the tortoise would always bring a smile to 

 the writer's face. 



A special diary was kept about him, from which it 

 is clear that he was the unwilling subject of many ex- 

 periments. He was dug up while asleep, to accompany 

 his master on a journey, showing his resentment by 

 vigorous hissing ; his pulse was felt ; he was regularly 

 weighed at the grocer's, to determine how much weight 

 he had lost by winter sleep, or gained by summer feed- 

 ing ; and once he was placed in a vessel of water to 

 prove if he could live in water as well as on land 

 much to his alarm, he being a land and not a water 

 tortoise. In the diary are such notes as these : " March 

 15th Timothy comes forth and weighs 6 Ibs. 5| ozs. 

 May 2nd Timothy eats. May 14th Timothy tra- 

 velled about the garden. September 17th When we 



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