LAND TORTOISES. 143 



The tortoife lives on vegetables fometimes, fnails, or worms ; is 

 fond of fruits; and, when the forefl affords them, is generally found not 

 far from where they grow. As it moves but flowly, is not very delicate 

 in the choice of food. Thofe kept in domefticity will eat any thing ; 

 leaves, fruits, corn, bran, or grafs. 



Tortoifes are torpid like the bat, the ferpent, the mole, and the li- 

 zard J and when food is no longer in plenty, happily become infenfible 

 to the want : is fometimes buried two or three feet in the ground, its 

 hole furniihed with mofs, grafs, and other fubftances, as well to keep 

 the retreat warm, as to ferve for food, in cafe ic fhould prem^iurely 

 awake. From this dormant ftate the tortoife is liberated by the genial 

 return of fpring ; not much wafted by its long confinement. 



The eggs of tortoifes are furnifhed with a yolk and a white j but the 

 fliell is fomewhat like thofe foft eggs that hens exclude before their time;; 

 yet much thicker and ftronger. The tortoife lays but few ; the turtle de- 

 Dofjts from an hundred and fifty, to two hundred, in a feafon. When it 

 prepares to lay, the female fcratches a hole in the earth, generally in a 

 warm (ituation, where the beams of the fun have their full effed; there 

 depofiting her eggs, and covering them with grafs and leaves, Ihe for- 

 fakes them, to be hatched by the heat of the feafon. The young are ge- 

 nerally excluded in about twenty- fix days j but this varies, as heat is more 

 or Icfs abundant. The little animals no fooner leave the egg, than they 

 feekfor provifion; their fhell, with which they are covered from the be- 

 ginning, expands, and grows larger with age. 



LAND TORTOISES, 



THE moft common is that called the Grecian: dwells in woods, 

 and elevated lands. Is among the fioweft of oviparous quadru- 

 peds ; refcmbles, in many refpefts, the frefh-water tortoifes. Thofe on 

 the mountains larger than thofe on the plains: about fourteen inches 

 long, ten broad. A ni^fitating membrane to the eye; the under eye-lid 

 only moveable; tail Ihort; membraned feet; puts its feet very flowly 

 to the ground, one toe (or rather nail) only at a tinr.e, till the whole 

 Part V. No. 28. B b touch 



