NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



251 



similarity of feelings between the two <epeotKot ! for so the Greeks 

 called both the shell-snail and the tortoise.* 



Summer birds are, this cold and backward spring, unusually 

 late : I have seen but one swallow yet. This conformity with 

 the weather convinces me more and more that they sleep in the 

 winter. 



* We take the following information from the note to this chapter in Mr. Bennet's edition. 

 The tortoise died in the spring of 1794, and the shell of it was preserved, and at the time 

 Mr. Bennet wrote his notes (1836), it was in the possession of Mrs. White, and a woodcut 

 is given of it. Professor Bell, whose authority regarding the testndinnta, is the best in this 

 country, if not elsewhere, refers it to the testndo itiarginata, a species not uncommon in 

 Greece and the Mediterranean; but Mr. Bennet, upon a careful examination and com- 

 p^rison of the shell of the Grecian species, thinks that he recognised distinctions that would 

 entitle it to a separate name, and he has applied to it that of its owner. We shall rejoice if 

 this can be established, which we have not at present materials to prove or disprove, and 

 would therefore leave it to Professor Bell. The vignette is from the figure of the T 

 marginata in PKOK. BELL'S Testndinata. 



