TERRAPINS. 305 



I kept a couple of chicken-tortoises for some time, 

 and very troublesome pets they were. Scarcely any 

 precautions could keep them from escaping from their 

 house, and whenever they escaped they always climbed 

 up something. They were always pleased when set 

 upon some elevation say, a table, a shelf, or a chest 

 of drawers. But the worst part of their conduct was, 

 that whenever they were pleased to take fright, which 

 was very often indeed, and without the least imagin- 

 able reason, they would scuttle off with such rapidity 

 that it was almost impossible to anticipate them, and 

 fling themselves down as fearlessly as if they had deep 

 water beneath them instead of a hard floor. It was a 

 curious example of the failure of instinct when ordinary 

 conditions are altered. 



They soon became very tame, and would come to 

 me if food were offered to them. They swam with 

 much celerity, and, in order to indulge their climbing 

 propensities, I put some stones and set a brick on end 

 in the middle of the vessel in which they were kept. 

 G-enerally, they contented themselves with clambering 

 up the stones and brick, but they always had a 

 hankering for escape, and, if they could contrive to 

 hitch one single claw over the top of the vessel, out 

 they went, and often caused no small trouble in finding 

 them. 



Their mode of eating was remarkable. If a piece 

 of meat were offered them, they would seize it in 

 their jaws, close the mouth firmly, so that the sharp, 

 horny edges should cut deeply into it, and then, 

 placing one of the fore feet at either side of the mouth, 

 they would push the meat forcibly from them, so as to 



