TOKTOISES.] 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



7.1 



any details of experiments. With this tenacity of 

 life is connected a low degree of sensation, but a 

 high degree of irritability, the characteristics of a 

 low grade of existence. In a natural state they live 

 through a long succession of years. In the Bishop's 

 garden at Peterborough, a tortoise died in 1821, 

 which must have exceeded two hundred and twenty 

 years. The Lambeth tortoise, which was intro- 

 duced into the garden by Archbishop Laud, about 

 the year 1625, and which died in 1753, in con- 

 sequence of some neglect on the part of the 

 gardener, lived in its last situation one hundred 

 and twenty-eight years. Gilbert White notices one 

 in a village in his neighbourhood, said by tradition 

 to be one hundred years old, and records some 

 interesting details of one which had been thirty years 

 a captive. In the ' Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society' for July, 1833, will be found the notice 

 of one of the gigantic tortoises in the gardens, and 

 which had been recently presented by Lieutenant 

 Sir Charles Colville, late governor of the Mauritius. 

 It was " one of those which were brought from the 

 Seychelles Islands to the Mauritius or Isle of France, 

 in 1766, by the Chevalier Marion du Fresne, and is 

 beheved to have since remained unchanged in size 

 and appearance ; consequently in 1833 it had been 

 sixty-seven years in the island, having been full- 

 grown, or at least as large as it was in 1833, and 

 hence what its real age might be it was impossible 

 to conjecture. Its length, measured along the curve 

 of the back, was four feet four inches ; its breadth, 

 taken in the same manner, four feet nine inches ; 

 the length of the plastron two feet eight inches ; 

 the breadth of the same two feet one inch and a 

 half; its weight two hundred and eighty-five 

 pounds. 



The Chelonia, or tortoises, are divided by MM. 

 Dumeril and Bibron into — I. Terrestrial or Land 

 Tortoises. II. Marsh Tortoises, or Emydes. III. 

 Fluviatile or River Tortoises. IV. Marine Tortoises, 

 or Turtles. Terrestrial tortoises have the body 

 short and oval, with the carapace greatly arched, 

 within which they can withdraw the head, limbs, 

 and tail for protection. In the genus Pyxis the an- 

 terior part of the plastron is movable on a trans- 

 verse hinge, and shuts up the head and fore limbs : 

 in the genus Cinixys the posterior part of the cara- 

 pace moves on a hinge. Slow, quiet, and inoffen- 

 sive, these animals seldom wander far from their ha- 

 bitual haunts, and trust only to their passive means 

 of defence when molested ; yet so strong is their 

 natural intrenchment, and so enduringly can they 

 remain cooped within, that, man excepted, there 

 are few ordinary animals which they have much 

 cause to fear ; the eagle, hawk, or crow may indeed 

 manage in one way or another to kill small species ; 

 they may soar up with their victim and let it fall 

 from a vast elevation, or the crow may pick away 

 at the head, withdrawn within the shell, and bit by 

 bit tear out its prey, but a large species of two hun- 

 dredweight may bid deiiance to any land animal. 

 It is rarely, if ever, that terrestrial tortoises enter the 

 water ; they are often, however, found to live along 

 its margin, or in the neighbourhood of streams and 

 lakes, influenced doubtless by the abundance of ve- 

 getation, and the soft quality of the soil, since they 

 not only dig a shallow pit in which to hybernate 

 (at least in extra tropical countries), but bury their 

 eggs, lightly covering them with earth, and leaving 

 them to be brought to maturity by the warmth of the 

 sun. The eggs of terrestrial tortoises are generally 

 round ; some, however, are elongated, but are never 

 of the oval shape of those of a fowl. They are 

 covered with a calcareous shell of considerable firm- 

 ness. 



The plates of horn with which the bony carapace 

 is covered, are often beautifully stained and marbled, 

 or spotted, and adorned with alternate concentric 

 lines and furrows, disposed in regular figures. The 

 young, however, after exclusion from the egg, differ 

 materially in form and colouring from the adults, 

 and the carapace is smooth. In these animals the 

 female is generally more thickly built than the male, 

 and has the plastron flat, while in the male it is 

 more or less concave. 



210C. — The Fubbowed Tortoise 

 {Testudo sulcata). In the genus Testudo the nails 

 on the anterior feet are five ; carapace and plastron 

 immovable. 



The furrowed Tortoise attains to a large size, and 

 is a native of Africa ; but if the specimen brought 

 by M. d'Orbigny from Patagonia prove to be 

 identical, it must also be enumerated among the 

 productions of South America : the specimen in 

 question was young. The circumstance of Africa 

 and South America being alike tenanted by this 

 tortoise, as M. Bibron observes, is most extraordi- 

 nary, for the entire class of reptiles presents us with 

 no other instance : and he adds, " We avow indeed 

 that to believe it, there is need that it should be at- 

 tested by a person so trustworthy as M. d'Orbigny, 

 who himself procured, in Patagonia, where, as he 

 Vol. II. 



says it is very common, the young specimen above 

 alluded to. Our other examples (in the Paris Mu- 

 seum) undoubtedly came from Africa ; two were part 

 of the rich zoological collection made at the Cape 

 of Good Hope by the late M. Lalande ; a third was 

 sent to the museum from Senegal, by a person at- 

 tached to the administration of that colony. We 

 know besides that M. Riippell also found this species 

 in Abyssinia, from which region are the two indi- 

 viduals deposited in the museum at Frankfort. In 

 this species the carapace is deeply furrowed, and 

 dentilated both before and behind. The general 

 colour is pale yellow, deeper on the head and limbs 

 and round the margin of the carapace. In some in- 

 dividuals the carapace is of a deep brown. 



2107, 2108.— The Arachnoid Pyxis 



(Pixis Arachnoides, Bell). In this genus the cara- 

 pace is oval, very convex, and deeply notched an- 

 teriorly ; the anterior part of the sternum is mov- 

 able on a tranverse hinge, shutting in the head and 

 limbs when withdrawn. 



This species, the only known example of the 

 genus, inhabits India and the Indian islands ; of its 

 habits nothing is known. It is of moderate size, and 

 beautifully marked. Head, neck, and tail brown ; the 

 limbs yellowish, with a black band ; the ground- 

 colour of the carapace reddish yellow ; the plates of 

 the disc have each eight or ten black triangular 

 marks disposed in a radiating manner ; on the mar- 

 ginal plates there are longitudinal marks of black, 

 which sometimes are extended over the adjacent 

 plates. The plastron is reddish yellow, with black 

 marks along its lateral margin. Fig. 2107 represents 

 the upper. Fig. 2108 the under surface of tliis species. 



We may here observe, that, according to M. 

 Bibron, there are twenty-seven species of terrestrial 

 tortoise, of which six are Asiatic, three South Euro- 

 pean, nine African, and nine American. Of these 

 one of the most remarkable is that described by 

 Mr. Darwin, as inhabiting the Galapagos, under the 

 title of Testudo Indica, a name given to more than 

 one giant species. These tortoises are alluded to, so 

 far back as 1708, by Woods, Rogers, and Courtney, 

 in their voyage round the world (Kerr's ' Voyages,' 

 vol. X., p. 373) ; who say, it is the opinion of the 

 Spaniards that there are no others in these seas, ex- 

 cept at the Galapagos. This species, probably the 

 Testudo nigra of Quoy and Gaimard, he describes as 

 being very abundant on those remote islands, as 

 they were in Dampier's time, whose statement he 

 quotes, that " they are so numerous, that five or six 

 hundred men might subsist on them for several 

 months without any other sort of provisions ;" adding, 

 "they are so extraordinarily large and fat, and so 

 sweet, that no pullets eat more pleasantly." 



The day on which Mr. Darwin visited the little 

 craters in the Galapagos Archipelago was glowing 

 hot, and the scrambling over the rough surface, and 

 through the intricate thickets, was very fatiguing. 

 "But," says Mr. Darwin, "I was well repaid by the 

 Cyclopean scene. In my walk I met two large 

 tortoises, each of which must have weighed at least 

 two hundred pounds. One was eating a piece of 

 cactus, and when I approached, it looked at me and 

 then quietly walked away ; the other gave a deep 

 hiss and drew in his head. These huge reptiles, 

 surrounded by the black lava, the leafless shrubs, 

 and large cacti, appeared to my fancy like some 

 antediluvian animals." 



Mr. Darwin states his belief that these tortoises 

 are found in all the islands of the archipelago ; 

 certainly in the greater number ; and thus continues 

 his description : — " They frequent, in preference, 

 the high damp parts, but likewise inhabit the lower 

 and arid districts. Some individuals grow to an 

 immense size. Mr. Lawson, an Englishman, who 

 had, at the time of our visit, charge of the colony, 

 told us that he had seen several so large that it 

 required six or eight men to lift them from the 

 ground, and that some had afforded as much as two 

 hundred pounds of meat. The old males are the 

 largest, the females rarely growing to so great a 

 size. The male can readily be distinguished from 

 the female by the greater length of its tail. The 

 tortoises which live on those islands where there is 

 no water, or in the lower and arid parts of the others, 

 chiefly feed on the succulent cactus. Those which 

 frequent the higher and damp regions eat the leaves 

 of various trees, a kind of berry (called guayavita) 

 which is acid and austere, and likewise a pale green 

 filamentous lichen, that hangs in tresses from the 

 boughs of the trees. 



" The tortoise is very fond of water, drinking 

 large quantities, and wallowing in the mud. The 

 larger islands alone possess springs, and these are 

 always situated towards the central parts, and at a 

 considerable elevation. The tortoises, therefore, 

 which frequent the lower districts, when thirsty, are 

 obliged to travel from a long distance. Hence, 

 broad and well-beaten paths radiate off in every 

 direction from the wells even down to the sea-coast ; 

 and the Spaniards, by following them up, first dis- 



covered the watering-places. When I landed at 

 Chatham Island, I could not imagine what animal 

 travelled so methodically along the well-chosen 

 tracks. Near the springs it was a curious spectacle 

 to behold many of these great monsters ; one set 

 eagerly travelling onwards with outstretched necks, 

 and another set returning, after having drunk their 

 fill. When the tortoise arrives at the spring, quite 

 regardless of any spectator, it buries its head in the 

 water above its eyes and greedily swallows great 

 mouthfuls, at the rate of about ten in a minute. 

 The inhabitants say that each animal stays three or 

 four days in the neighbourhood of the water, and 

 then returns to the lower country ; but they differed 

 in their accounts respecting the frequency of these 

 visits. The animal probably regulates them ac 

 cording to the nature of the food which it has 

 consumed. It is, however, certain that tortoises 

 can subsist even on those islands where there is no 

 other water than what falls during a "few lainy days, 

 in the year. 



" I believe it is well ascertained that the bladder 

 of the frog acts as a reservoir for the moisture 

 necessary to its existence : such seems to be the case 

 with the tortoise. For some time after a visit to 

 the springs, the bladder of these animals is distended 

 with fluid, which is said gradually to decrease in 

 volume and to become less pure. The inhabitants, 

 when walking in the lower district, and overcome 

 with thirst, often take advantage of this circum- 

 stance, by killing a tortoise, and if the bladder is 

 full, drinking its contents. In one I saw killed, the 

 fluid was quite limpid, and had only a very sligluly 

 bitter taste. The inhabitants, however, always drink 

 first the water in the pericardium, which is described 

 as being best. The tortoises, when moving towards 

 any definite point, travel by night and by day, and 

 arrive at their journey's end much sooner than would 

 be expected. The inhabitants, from observation on 

 marked individuals, consider that they can move a 

 distance of about eight miles in two or three days. 

 One large tortoise which I watched, I found walked 

 at the rate of sixty yards in ten minutes, that is, 

 three hundred and sixty in the hour, or four miles a 

 day — allowing also a little time for it to eat on the 

 road. During the breeding season, when the male 

 and female aie together, the male utters a hoarse 

 roar or bellowing, which, it is said, can be heard at 

 the distance of more than a hundred yards. The 

 female never uses her voice, and the male only at 

 such times ; so that when the people hear this noise, 

 they know the two are together. They were at 

 this time (October) laying their eggs. The female, 

 where the soil is sand, deposits them together, and 

 covers them up with sand; but where the ground 

 is rocky, she drops them indiscriminately in any 

 hollow. Mr. Bynoe found seven placed in a line in 

 a fissure. The egg is white and spherical ; one 

 which I measured was seven inches and three- 

 eighths in circumference. The young animals, as 

 soon as they are hatched, fall a prey in great 

 numbers to the buzzard with the habits of the 

 caracara. The old ones seem generally to die 

 from accidents, as from falling down precipices. 

 At least several of the inhabitants told me they 

 had never found one dead without some such 

 apparent cause. The inhabitants believe that these 

 animals are absolutely deaf; certainly they do not 

 overhear a person walking close behind them. I 

 was always amused, when overtaking one of these 

 great monsters as it was quietly pacing along, to see 

 how suddenly, the instant I passed, it would draw 

 in its head and legs, and uttering a deep hiss fall to 

 the ground with a heavy sound, as if struck dead. I 

 frequently got on their backs, and then, upon giving 

 a few raps on the hinder part of the shell, they 

 would rise up and walk away ; but I found it very 

 difficult to keep my balance. The flesh of this ani- 

 mal is largely employed, both fresh and salted ; and 

 a beautifidly clear oil is prepared from the fat. 

 When a tortoise is caught, the man makes a slit in 

 the skin near its tail, so as to see inside its body, 

 whether the fat under the dorsal plate is thick. If 

 it is not, the animal is liberated ; and it is said to 

 recover soon from this strange operation. In order 

 to secure the tortoises, it is not suflacient to turn 

 them like turtle, for they are often able to regain 

 their upright position. 



" It was confidently asserted that the tortoises 

 coming from different islands in the archipelago 

 were slightly different in form ; and that in certain 

 islands they attained a larger average size than in 

 others. Mr. Lawson maintained that he could at 

 once tell from which island any one was brought. 

 Unfortunately, the specimens which came home in 

 the Beagle were too small to institute any certain 

 comparison. This tortoise, which goes by the name of 

 Testudo Indicus, is at present found in many parts 

 of the worid. It is the opinion of Mr. Bell and 

 some others who have studied reptiles, that it is not 

 improbable that they all originally came from this 

 archipelago. When it is known how long these 

 islands have been frequented by the buccaneers, and 



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