340 



HISTORY OK FISHES. 



The usual food of the land tortoise seems 

 not so nourishing as to supply this extraordin- 

 ary principle of vitality. It lives upon vege- 

 tables in its retreats in the mountains or the 

 plain ; and seldom makes its prey of snails or 

 worms, but when other food is not found in 

 grateful plenty. It is fond also of fruits ; and 

 when the forest affords them, is generally 

 found not far from where they grow. As it 

 can move but slowly, it is not very delicate in 

 the choice of its food ; so that it usually fills 

 itself with whatever offers. Those that are 

 kept in a domestic state will eat any thing ; 

 leaves, fruits, corn, bran, or grass. 



From the smallness of its brain, and the 

 slowness of its motion, it obviously appears to 

 be a torpid heavy animal, requiring rest and 

 sleep ; and, in fact, it retires to some cavern 

 to sleep for the winter. I already observed 

 that its blood circulated through the heart by 

 a short passage ; and that it did not, as anato- 

 mists express it, go through the great circulation. 

 With us, and quadrupeds, the blood goes from 

 the veins to the heart ; and from the heart it is 

 sent to be spread over the lungs ; from the 

 lungs it returns to the heart again ; and from 

 thence it goes to the arteries to be distributed 

 through the whole body. But its passage in 

 the tortoise is much shorter; for, from the 

 veins it goes to the heart ; then leaving the 

 lungs entirely out of its course, it takes a short 

 cut, if I may so say, into the beginning of the 

 arteries, which send it round the animal frame. 

 From hence we see the lungs are left out of 

 the circulation ; and, consequently, the animal 

 is capable of continuing to live without conti- 

 nuing to breathe. In this it resembles the bat, 

 the serpent, the mole, and the lizard ; like 

 them it takes up its dark residence for the 

 winter ; and, at that time, when its food is no 

 longer in plenty, it happily becomes insensible 

 to the want. Nor is it unmindful to prepare 

 its retreat, and make it as convenient as pos- 

 sible ; it is sometimes buried two or three feet 

 in the ground, with its hole furnished with 

 moss, grass, and other substances, as well to 



even at a distance of twelve feet. About the beginnniiig 

 of October, or latter end of September, it began to im- 

 mure itself, and had for that purpose for many years 

 selected a particular angle of the garden ; it entered in 

 an inclined plane, excavating the earth in the manner of 

 the mole; the depth to which it penetrated varied with 

 the character of the approaching season, being from one 

 to two feet, according as the winter was mild or severe. 

 It may be added, that for nearly a month prior to this 

 entry into its dormitory, it refused all sustenance what- 

 ever. The animal emerged about the end of April, and 

 remained for at least a fortnight before it ventured on 

 taking any species of food. Its skin was not perceptibly 

 cold : its respiration, entirely effected through the nos- 

 trils, was languid. I visited the animal, for the last 

 time, on the 9th June, 1813, during a thunder storm : 

 it then lay under the shelter of a cauliflower, and ap- 

 parently torpid." Murray's Experimental Researches. 



keep (he retreat warm, as to serve for food, in 

 case it should prematurely awake from its 

 state of stupefaction. But it must not be 

 supposed, that, while it is thus at rest, it to- 

 tally discontinues to breathe ; on the contrary, 

 an animal of this kind, if put into a close ves- 

 sel, without air, will soon be stifled ; though 

 not so readily as in a state of vigour and acti- 

 vity. 



From this dormant state the tortoise is 

 awakened by the genial return of spring ; and is 

 thought not to be much wasted by its long con- 

 finement. To animals that live a hundred and 

 fifty years, a sleep of six months is but as the 

 nap of a night. All the actions of these long- 

 lived creatures seem formed upon a scale an- 

 swering the length of their existence ; their 

 slumbers are for a season ; their motions are 

 slow, and require time in every action ; even 

 the act of procreation, which among other ani- 

 mals is performed in a very few minutes, is 

 with them the business of days. About a 

 month after their enlargement from a torpid 

 state, they prepare to transmit their posterity; 

 and both continue joined for near a month to- 

 gether. The eggs of the female are contained 

 in the ovary, above the bladder, which is ex- 

 tremely large ; and these are, before their ex- 

 clusion, round and naked, with some spots of 

 red ; after they are laid, however, they assume 

 another form, being smaller and longer than 

 those of a hen. This alteration in the figure 

 of the eggs most probably proceeds from the 

 narrowness of the bony passage through which 

 they are excluded. Swammerdam, who com- 

 pared the size of the eggs taken out of this 

 animal's body with the diameter of the passage 

 through which they were excluded, was of 

 opinion that the bones themselves separated 

 from each other, and closed again ; but, in 

 my opinion, it is more probable to suppose, 

 that the eggs, and not the bones, alter their 

 form. Certain it is, that they are round in 

 the body, and that they are oval upon being 

 protruded. 



The eggs of all the tortoise kind, like those 

 of birds, are furnished with a yolk and a white ; 

 but the shell is different, being somewhat like 

 those soft eggs that hens exclude before their 

 time ; however, this shell is much thicker and 

 stronger, and is a longer time in coming to 

 maturity in the womb. The land-tortoise lays 

 but a few in number, if compared to the sea- 

 turtle, who deposits from a hundred and fifty 

 to two hundred in a season. 



The amount of the land-tortoise's eggs I 

 have not been able to learn; 1 but, from the 

 scarceness of the animal, I am apt to think 

 they cannot be numerous. When it prepares 



1 Land tortoises are supposed to lay five or six eggs, 

 but on this point we have no very positive information. 



