BRITISH ZOOLOGISTS. 115 



but to stop and withdraw from the brink with the readiest 

 precaution. 



'Though he loves warm weather, he avoids the hot 

 sun; because his thick shell, when once heated, would, 

 as the poet says of solid armour, " scald with safety." He 

 therefore spends the more sultry hours under the shelter 

 of a large cabbage leaf, or amidst the waving forests of an 

 asparagus bed. But as he avoids the heat in summer, so, 

 in the decline of the year, he improves the faint autumnal 

 beams by getting within the reflection of a fruit-wall ; 

 and though he never has read that planes inclining to 

 the horizon receive a greater share of warmth, he inclines 

 his shell, by tilting it against the wall, to collect and 

 admit every feeble ray. 



' Pitiable seems the condition of this poor embarrassed 

 reptile : to be cased in a suit of ponderous armour ; to be 

 imprisoned, as it were, within his own shell, must preclude, 

 we should suppose, all activity and disposition for enter- 

 prise. Yet there is a season of the year (usually the 

 beginning of June) when his exertions are remarkable. 

 He then 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 gravity, and induce him to forget for a time his 

 ordinary solemn deportment.' 



As an admirable example of Gilbert White's wonderful 



