58 CLASS REPTILIA. 



named Zolhafa, by the Arabs, is to be regarded as synonymous 

 with it, and of which Forskael has given but an indication 

 in his Fauna of Arabia. According to him, it is a foot long. 

 The plastron, or breast-plate, of the male is flat, that of the 

 female somewhat concave. The latter lays thirty or forty 

 eggs, pretty nearly as large as those of a pigeon. It is rare 

 in Cairo, but found commonly enough towards Aleppo and 

 Mount Libanus. It is sold in the markets in Egypt, and the 

 Greeks eat it during Lent, regarding it in the same point of 

 view as fish : they cook its eggs for their table, and drink the 

 blood fresh. 



According to Cetti, the common tortoise seldom weighs 

 above three pounds. It is not often brought up in the gar- 

 dens of France or Germany, but very frequently in those of 

 Italy, where Targioni Tozzetti, professor of medicine at 

 Florence, has examined it with some attention. According 

 to this observer, it multiplies there, grows very slowly, and 

 may live for forty years and more. We have already men- 

 tioned one cited by Cetti, which was sixty years old and 

 upwards. But we are told in Shaw's General Zoology, that 

 there have been several well-attested examples of the tortoise 

 having lived considerably beyond the period of a century. 

 In the time of Archbishop Laud, one was introduced into the 

 episcopal garden at Lambeth, about the year 1633, and con- 

 tinued to live there until 1753, when it died, as it would seem, 

 from neglect, and not the mere effect of age. The shell is 

 preserved in the library of the palace of Lambeth. This 

 tortoise appears to have exceeded the usual dimensions of its 

 species, for the shell measured ten inches in length, and six 

 and-a-half in breadth. 



The common tortoise, about the end of October, buries 

 itself about two feet under ground, and does not emerge until 

 April. We are told that it hybernates in this manner even 

 in Barbary, and it is probable that it does so in all the coun- 



