GOPHER TORTOISE. Testudo 



haunt. They could not endure rain, and retreated hastily to their burrows, or to other 

 shelter, at the coming on of a shower. 



As winter approached, they confined themselves to the immediate neighbourhood of 

 their holes, and basked in the sunshine. As the cold increased, they retired to their 

 burrows, where they became torpid ; a few warm days, however, even in winter, would 

 again restore them to life and activity. 



The adults are remarkably strong, sustaining and moving with a weight of two 

 hundred pounds or more. The female is generally larger than the male, with the sternum 

 convex ; the sternum of the male is concave, especially on its posterior part. The eggs 

 are larger than those of a pigeon, round, with a hard calcareous shell ; they are much 

 esteemed as an article of food." 



PERHAPS the best known species of these creatures is the COMMON LAND TOETOISE, so 

 frequently exposed for sale in our markets, and so favourite an inhabitant of gardens. 



This appears to be the only species that inhabits Europe, and even in that continent it 

 is by no means widely spread, being confined to those countries which border the 

 Mediterranean. 



It is one of the vegetable feeders, eating various plants, and being very fond of lettuce 

 leaves, which it crops in a rather curious manner, biting them off sharply when fresh and 

 crisp, but dragging them asunder when stringy, by putting the fore feet upon them, and 

 pulling with the jaws. This Tortoise will drink milk, and does so by opening its mouth, 

 scooping up the milk in its lower jaw, as if with a spoon, and then raising its head to let 

 the liquid run down its throat. 



One of these animals, which I kept for some time, displayed a remarkable capacity for 

 climbing, and was very fond of mounting upon various articles of furniture, stools being 

 its favourite resort. It revelled in warmth, and could not be kept away from the hearth- 

 rug, especially delighting to climb upon a footstool that generally lay beside the fender. 

 It used to clamber on the stool in a rather ingenious manner. First it got on its hind 

 legs, rearing itself against the angle formed by the stool and fender. Then it would 

 slowly raise one of its hind legs, hitch the claws into a hole in the fender, and raise itself 



