360 NATURAL HISTORY 



walks on tiptoe, and is stirring by five in the morning ; 

 and, traversing the garden, examines every wicket and 

 interstice in the fences, through which he will escape if 

 possible; and often has eluded the care of the gardener, 

 and wandered to some distant field. The motives that 

 impel him to undertake these rambles seem to be of the 

 amorous kind : his fancy then becomes intent on sexual 

 attachments, which transport him beyond his usual gra- 

 vity, and induce him to forget for a time his ordinary 

 solemn deportment 2 . 



3 Interesting as the old family tortoise has been rendered by the anec- 

 dotes related of him by Gilbert White, his history may be closed by the 

 statement that his life was not prolonged much beyond that of his pro- 

 tector. He died, it is believed, in the spring of 1794 ; after an existence 

 extended in England to about fifty-four years, the last fourteen of which 

 were spent at Selborne. The thick shell, in which he was coffined while 

 alive, is preserved in the residence of the master who secured for him an 

 enduring existence in the memories of many. 



My friend Mr. Bell regards the specimen, which he has had an oppor- 

 tunity of inspecting, as an old and worn shell of the bordered tortoise, 

 Test, marginata, SCHCEPFF: and all who are acquainted with the extent 

 and accuracy of his knowledge of the Te8tudinata,must be aware that any 

 one who differs from him on such a subject, is probably in the wrong. Yet 

 at this risk I have ventured to regard the Selborne tortoise as a distinct 

 species. Its shell is less elevated than is usual in the bordered tortoise, 

 once named on that account the bell-shaped : its wrinkles are less strongly 

 marked and less sharp: itssubcaudal plates form with each other a much 

 more open angle : and its anterior supra-femoral plate, instead of running 

 to a point towards the back, has an inner margin nearly of equal length 

 with its anterior and its posterior edges. But the general form of the 

 shell of a tortoise, the sculpture of its surface, and the shape of particular 

 plates, are all too variable in many species to warrant the adoption of 

 any or all of these characters as absolutely distinctive; and on them no 

 assured reliance can consequently be placed. More stress may be laid on 

 the animal, and on particular organs or plates attached to its body ; and 

 in the case of Gilbert White's tortoise there is a fragment remaining of 

 the skin of one of the thighs which principally induces me to regard it as 

 distinct from the bordered species : for on this fragment of skin there is 

 a large white conical process or spur. No such process was noted by 

 Mr. Bell on the specimen of the bordered tortoise which he had alive, 

 and which is beautifully figured in his splendid work on the Testudinata : 

 evidence, it is true, of a negative character only, but becoming positive 

 when taken in conjunction with the distinct statement of M. Bibron, (in 

 the Erpe"tologie Generate, which he is now publishing in conjunction with 

 M. Dumeril,) that there are no large horny tubercles in that species on 

 the hinder face of the thighs. Although the bordered tortoise is far from 



