336 The Natural History of Selborne 



afternoon, and often does not stir in the morning till late. Be- 

 sides, 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 afternoon, 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 ^E/OE'OIKOI / for so the Greeks 

 called both the shell-snail and the tortoise. 



Summer birds are, this cold and backward spring, unusually 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. 



