LETTER L 



TO THE SAME 



SELBORNE, April 21, 1780. 



DEAR SIR, The old Sussex tortoise, that I have men- 

 tioned to you so often, is become my property. I dug it 

 out of it's winter dormitory in March last, when it was 

 enough awakened to express it's resentments by hissing ; 

 and, packing it in a box with earth, carried it eighty miles 

 in post-chaises. The rattle and hurry of the journey so 

 perfectly roused it that, when I turned it out on a border, 

 it walked twice down to the bottom of my garden ; how- 

 ever, in the evening, the weather being cold, it buried itself 

 in the loose mould, and continues still concealed. 



As it will be under my eye, I shall now have an oppor- 

 tunity of enlarging my observations on it's mode of life, 

 and propensities ; and perceive already that, towards the 

 time of coming forth, it opens a breathing place in the 

 ground near it's head, requiring, I conclude, a freer re- 

 spiration as it becomes more alive. This creature not only 



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