206 The Natural History of Selborne 



earth, and forcing its great body into the cavity ; but, as the noons 

 of that season proved unusually warm and sunny, it was continually 

 interrupted, and called forth by the heat in the middle of the day ; 

 and though I continued there 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 discover 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 inatten- 

 tive 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. 



