688 REPTILIA — TORTOISE. 



LAND TORTOISESi 



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Are found of all sizes up to five feet in length from the end of the snout to 

 the tip of the tail; and to a foot and a half across the back. It has a small 

 head, somewhat resembling that of a serpent; an eye without the upper lid; 

 the under eyelid serving to cover and keep that organ in safety. It has a 

 strong, scaly tail, like the lizard. Its head the animal can put out and 

 hide at pleasure, under the great penthouse of its shell ; there it can'remain 

 secure from all attacks. As the tortoise lives wholly upon vegetable food, it 

 never seeks the encounter ; yet if any of the smaller animals attempt to 

 invade its repose, they are sure to suffer. The tortoise, impregnably de- 

 fended, is furnished with such a strength of jaw, that, tjiough armed only with 

 bony plates instead of teeth, wherever it fastens, it infallibly keeps its hold 

 until it has taken out the piece. 



Though peaceable in itself, it is formed for war in another respect, for it 

 seems almost endued with immortality. Nothing can kill it ; the depriving 

 it of one of its members is but a slight injury ; it will live though deprived 

 of the brain ; it will live, though deprived of its head. Tortoises are com- 

 monly known to exceed eighty years ; and there was one kept in the arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury's garden at Lambeth, London, that was remembered 

 above a hundred and twenty. It was at last killed by the severity of the 

 frost, from which it had not sufficiently defended itself in its winter retreat, 

 which was a heap of sand at the bottom of the garden. 



Though there is a circulation of blood in the tortoise, yet the animal is 

 capable of continuing to live without continuing to breathe. In this it 

 resembles the bat, the serpent, the mole, and the lizard ; like them it takes 

 up its dark residence for the winter, and, at that time, when its food is no 

 longer in plenty, it happily becomes insensible to the want. But it must 

 not be supposed that, while it is thus at rest, it totally discontinues to 

 breathe ; on the contrary, an animal of this kind, if put into a close vessel, 

 without air, will soon be stifled; though not so readily as in a state of vigor 

 and activity. 



' The genus Testudo has the upper shell gibbous, supported by a solid, bony frame, and 

 joined through the greater portion of its sides to the under shell; feet with short toes unit- 

 ed nearly to the nails, and capable, as well as the head, of being withdrawn within the 

 shell; fore feet with five nails, those behind with four, all thick and conical. 



