14)6 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. V. 



withdraw his head and limbs within the bony shell 

 which envelops his body, and he can defy the teeth of 

 the tiger, the cunning of the fox, and the talons of the 

 eagle. If, during these rencontres, the tortoise can 

 slyly protrude his head and inflict a bite upon his 

 enemy, the wound is most severe : the jaws, it is true, 

 are destitute of teeth ; but they are of solid bone, and so 

 sharp, that they can only be compared to a pair of 

 semicircular scissors. The consequence is often fatal. 

 A middle-sized tortoise, at one bite, has been known to 

 amputate the finger of a man, as effectually, though not 

 so skilfully, as if it had been done by a surgeon ; and if 

 the bite is made in a fleshy part, it always brings out 

 the piece with it. 



(165.) The various modes of defence possessed by 

 the class of FISHES are but imperfectly known ; for these 

 animals, hid from the eye of man in an element in 

 which he cannot, for any length of time, exist, pursue 

 their habits and instincts in secret. In this, as in all 

 other natural groups, we find two descriptions of 

 feeders ; one deriving their subsistence by rapine and 

 bloodshed, destroying life and feeding upon their vic- 

 tims ; the other, peaceful and inoffensive, feeding for 

 the most part upon marine vegetables, and furnishing, 

 by their flesh, a wholesome and nutritious food to 

 man. The first of these propensities is possessed by 

 the sharks, the rays, and a few others; and it is, con- 

 sequently, among these that we find the offensive 

 powers strongly displayed, while they also become the 

 means of self-defence. In the shark family, the teeth 

 are the only weapons, but they are of the most for- 

 midable description : these ferocious monsters have 

 been known, , at one gripe, to separate^ the body of a 

 man in two, swallowing the one half, and leaving the 

 other for a second mouthful : the irresistible power 

 possessed by such a fish over the inhabitants of the 

 deep may, therefore, be readily understood. The teeth 

 of the sting rays are not so formidable ; but they have a 

 peculiar defence of their own, which always renders them 



