144 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



morning, so sure will it rain before night. It is totally a 

 diurnal animal, and never pretends to stir after it becomes 

 dark. The tortoise, like other reptiles, has an arbitrary 

 stomach as well as lungs ; and can refrain from eating as 

 well as breathing for a great part of the year. When first 

 awakened it eats nothing ; nor again in the autumn before 

 it retires : through the height of the summer it feeds 

 voraciously, devouring all the food that comes in its way. 

 I was much taken with its sagacity in discerning those that 

 do it kind offices ; for, as soon as the good old lady comes 

 in sight who has waited on it [f or more than thirty years, it 

 hobbles towards its benefactress with awkward alacrity ; 

 but remains inattentive to strangers. Thus not only " the 

 ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib,"* but 

 the most abject reptile and torpid of beings distinguishes 

 the hand that feeds it, and is touched with the feelings of 

 gratitude ! 



P.S In about three days after I left Sussex the tortoise 

 retired into the ground under the hepatica. 



LETTER XIV. 



SELBORNE, March 26ih, 1773. 



THE more I reflect on the o-ropyyj of animals, the more I 

 am astonished at its effects. Nor is the violence of this 

 affection more wonderful than the shortness of its duration. 

 Thus every hen is in her turn the virago of the yard, in 



* Isa. i. 3. 



