694 



ErcaSurp of Natural l& 



attested instances are on record. One, whose 

 shell is still preserved in the library of Lam- 

 beth Palace, was introduced into the archie- 

 piscopal garden in the time of Archbishop 

 Laud, about the year 1633, and continued to 

 live there till 1753, when it was supposed to 

 have perished rather from accidental neglect 

 on the part of the gardener, than from the 

 mere effect of age. 



The general manners of the Tortoise, in a 

 state of domestication in this country, are 

 very agreeably detailed by the Rev. Gilbert 

 White, in his History of Selborne. He thus 

 writes to the Hon. Daines Barrington, from 

 Ringmer, near Lewes, in October, 1770 : 

 "A land-tortoise, which has been kept for 

 thirty years in a little walled court belong- 

 ing to the house where I am now visiting, 

 retires under ground about the middle of 

 November, and conies forth again about the 

 middle of April. When it first appears in 

 the spring, it discovers very little inclination 

 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." In April, 

 1772, he again writes to the same corespond- 

 ent : " While I was in Sussex last autumn, 

 my residence was at the village near Lewes, 

 from whence I had formerly the pleasure of 

 writing to you. On the 1st of November, I 

 remarked that the old tortoise, formerly 

 mentioned, began first to dig the ground, in 

 order to the forming of its hybernaculum, 

 I which it had fixed on just beside a great tuft 

 | of hepatieas. It scrapes out the ground with 

 | its fore-feet, and throws it up over its back 

 with its hind ; but the motion of its legs is 

 ridiculously slow, little exceeding the hour 

 hand of a clock ; and suitable to the com- 

 posure of an animal said to be a whole month 

 in performing one feat of copulation. No- 

 thing can be more assiduous than this crea- 

 ture, night and day, in scooping the earth, 

 and forcing its great body into the cavity ; but, 

 as the noons of that season proved unusually 

 warm and sunny, it was continually inter- 

 rupted and called forth by the heat, in the 

 middle of the day ; and though I continued 

 there till the 13th 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, be- 

 fore 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 ala- 

 crity ; but remains inattentive to strangers. 

 Thus not only ' the ox knpweth his owner, 

 and the ass his master's crib,' but the most 

 abject reptile and torpid of beings distin- 

 guishes the hand that feeds it, and is touched 

 with feelings of gratitude." 



There are several species of Land Tor- 

 toises, which differ from the foregoing both 

 with regard to their size, and the colour, 

 form, &,c. of their buckler. Some are re- 

 markable for the pleasing distribution of 

 their colours, as the GEOMETRICAL TOR- 

 TOISE (Testudo ffeometrica), a small species 

 with a black carapace, each scale of which is 

 regularly adorned with yellow lines ra- 

 diating from a disc of the same colour 

 Another, the CLOSE TORTOISE (Testudo 

 clattsa), obtains its name from the unusual 

 manner in which the under part of the shell 

 is applied to the'upper ; being continued in 

 such a manner round the margin, that when 

 the animal withdraws its head and legs, it is 

 enabled accurately to close all parts of the 

 shell entirely together, so as to be in a com- 

 plete state of security ; and so strong is the 

 defence of this little animal, that it is not 

 only uninjured by having a weight of five or 

 six hundred pounds laid upon it, but can 

 walk in its usual manner beneath the load. 

 Its length rarely exceeds four or five inches. 

 It is a native of many parts of North Ame- 

 rica ; and is principally sought for on ac- 

 count of its eggs, which are reckoned a de- 

 licacy, and are about the size of pigeons' 



We shall conclude our account of Land 

 Tortoises with the following from ' Darwin's 

 Researches,' &c. In describing the reptiles 

 common in the Galapagos Archipelago, that 

 gentleman particularly notices the habits of 

 the large Tortoise (Testudo Indicus). " These 

 animals," says he, "are found, I believe, 

 in all the islands of the Archipelago ; cer- 

 tainly in the greatest number. They fre- 

 quent in preference the high damp parts, 

 biit likewise inhabit the lower and arid dis- 

 tricts. He then quotes Dampier, in proof 

 of their number, who says, ' They are here 

 so numerous, that five or six hundred men 

 might subsist on them for several months 

 without any other sort of provisions ; and 

 they are so extraordinarily large and fat, 

 and so sweet, that no pullet eats more plea- 

 santly.' "The Tortoise is very fond of 

 water, drinking large quantities, and wal- 

 lowing 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, there- 

 fore, which frequent the lower districts 



