DOMESTIC LIFE. 131 



ment ; others employ violence, the several suitors 

 fighting viciously among themselves for the 

 coveted prize. 



But little appears to be known concerning 

 the methods of courtship prevalent among the 

 Tortoise tribe. The writer was therefore the 

 more fortunate in witnessing a little love passage 

 between two painted Terrapins (Chrysemys picta) 

 in the Eeptile House at the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens in London, the date, to be quite precise, 

 being the 21st of July 1901. The unusual 

 activity of a male of this species was the first 

 thing to attract attention to his movements, 

 which appeared to be excited by some strange 

 stimulus. Watched more closely, he was found 

 to be dodging a female of his own species, and 

 making most frantic efforts to swim round so as 

 to directly oppose her path. This done, he 

 closed up, and immediately commenced to beat a 

 lively tattoo with his long finger-nails upon her 

 devoted head and eyes, the movements being so 

 rapid that nothing more than a blurred image of 

 the nails was visible. As soon as she escaped 

 these peculiar attentions, he set about circum- 

 venting her again, and again succeeded, and this 

 was repeated, not once, but many times during 

 my stay there. 



Dumb for the rest of the year, some at least 

 appear to find a voice during this time of court- 

 ship. Thus the giant Tortoise of the Galapagos 

 (Testudo nigra), at this period only, utters a hoarse 

 bellowing sound, which can be heard at a distance 

 of more than a hundred yards. His mate is at all 

 times voiceless, like the far-famed Cicada. 



