44 STRANGE DWELLINGS 



CHAPTER III. 



BURROWING REPTILES. 



The Reptiles and their hibernation — The Land Tortoise and its winter 

 dwelling— The Crocodiles— Snakes— The Yellow SNAKEof Jan.aica— Its 

 general habits — Its burrowing powers discovered — Presumed method of 

 removing the earth. 



The Reptiles are, as a body, not remarkable for the burrows 

 which they make. 



Many of them bore their way into the ground, pass a few 

 months in a state of torpidity, and then push their way out 

 again. But the hole which they make in the earth is scarcely 

 to be called a home, inasmuch as the inhabitant merely enters 

 it as a convenient place wherein it may become torpid, and 

 abandons it as soon as the ordinary functions of the system are 

 restored by the warmth of the succeeding year. 



The common Land Tortoise, for example {Testudo Grcecd), is 

 in the habit of slowly digging a burrow with almost painful de- 

 liberation, and then concealing itself below the surface of the 

 earth during the cold months of winter. Many Tortoises which 

 have lived in this country have been noticed to perform this act, 

 and I have lately seen a very good example of a burrow which 

 had been sunk amid some strawberry plants, and from which 

 the inmate had just emerged. 



Many other reptiles follow a similar course of action. The 

 crocodiles, for example, sink themselves deeply in the mud, and 

 have more than once caused much alarm by awakening out 

 of their hibernation, and protruding their unwelcome snouts 

 from the mud close to the feet of the astonished spectator. 



Snakes are accustomed, in like manner, to conceal themselves 

 during the period of their hibernation, resorting to hollow trees, 



