252 ' NATURAL HISTORY 



tended to, it becomes an excellent weather- 

 glass ; for as sure as it walks elate, and as 

 it were on tiptoe, feeding with great ear- 

 nestness in a morning, so sure Mill 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 for more than 

 thirty years, it hobbles towards its bene- 

 factress with awkward alacrity : but remains 

 inattentive to strangers. Thus not only 

 " the ox knoKcth his ownet\ and the ass his 

 master s crib,^'* but the most abject reptile 



* Isaiah i. 3. 



