LAND TORTOISE. 157 



Brighthelmstone ; no doubt they are acquainted 

 with the Sussex Downs. The prospects and rides 

 round Lewes are most lovely. 



As I rode along near the coast I kept a very 

 sharp look-out in the lanes and woods, hoping I 

 might, at this time of the year, have discovered 

 some of the summer short- winged birds of passage 

 crowding towards the coast in order for their de- 

 parture ; but it was very extraordinary that I 

 never saw a red- start, white-throat, black-cap, 

 uncrested wren, fly-catcher, &c. ; and I remember 

 to have made the same remark in former years, as 

 I usually come to this place annually about this 

 time. The birds most common along the coast at 

 present are the stonechatterers, whinchats, bunt- 

 ings, linnets, some few wheatears, titlarks, &c. 

 Swallows and house-martins abound yet [October 

 8th], induced to prolong their stay by this soft, 

 still, dry season. 



A land tortoise, which has been kept for thirty 

 years in a little walled court belonging to the 

 house where I am now visiting, retires under 

 ground about the middle of November, and comes 

 forth again about the middle of April. When it 

 first appears in the spring it discovers very little 

 inclination towards food, but in the height of 

 summer grows voracious, and then as the summer 

 declines its appetite declines ; so that for the 

 last six weeks in autumn it hardly eats at all. 

 Milky plants, such as lettuces, dandelions, sow- 

 thistles, are its favourite dish. In a neighbouring 

 village one was kept till, by tradition, it was 

 supposed to be a hundred years old an instance 

 of vast longevity in such a poor reptile ! 



