HOUSE-BERING ftEPTIItES. 



TURTLES are four-legged reptiles, with short, stout, 

 oval-shaped bodies encased in bony boxes, from 

 which they are able to protrude their heads, legs and tails, 

 and into which they can withdraw them, at pleasure. Con- 

 siderable diversity exists in the size and shape of the box- 

 like covering in the different species. The Box Tortoise can 

 retire into his shell or house, closing the under part or plas- 

 tron into a groove of the upper edge of the carapace, as the 

 upper part is called, thus constituting for his security an im- 

 pregnable retreat. There are species only partly enclosed by 

 the shell, which cannot bring their heads and feet under cover. 



With his house upon his back the turtle wanders about as 

 the snail does, and against his enemies can close its doors 

 and be emphatically not at home. He has acute sight and 

 hearing, but is devoid of teeth, the jaws being, like those of 

 birds, simply cased in horn. Turtles are not altogether 

 silent creatures, for many of them are capable of producing 

 very loud sounds. 



Their eggs, which have a parchment-like covering, are 

 buried in earth or sand, and left to themselves to hatch. The 

 sea-turtle, our largest variety, is sometimes found to lay as 

 many as two hundred eggs in a heap, and in tropical regions 

 has been known to attain a weight of a thousand pounds. 

 Even on the Atlantic Coast of the United States individuals, 

 weighing upwards of eight hundred pounds, have not infre- 

 quently been captured. 



In the four species of sea-turtles, the feet are flat and pad- 

 dle-shaped, and the shell of one rather leathery than horny. 



