AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



37 



cave excavated in the ground for his retreat from the cold. 

 In this last place 1 expected he would have passed most of 

 his time, but in this I found myself mistaken. From the 

 circumstance of finding my tortoise so early in the spring, 

 I conclude that he generally comes forth from his winter 

 retreat, or revives from his torpid state, about the latter end 

 of April. His time of appearance must, however, be in 

 some measure regulated by the temperature in different 

 years. I was agreeably disappointed to find that his ap- 

 petite, at this season, was very good, for I had supposed 

 that, so shortly after his long sleep, he would have disco- 

 vered but little inclination for food, and that he would re- 

 serve himself for the height of summer, when I expected 

 to find him voracious. I kept a pretty accurate account of 

 his diet, and I found but little variation in his appetite 

 during the whole season, till the beginning of October, 

 when the most delicate morsel would scarcely tempt him 

 to eat. Some writers say, that the tortoise will live a 

 year and a half without any kind of nourishment; whatever 

 may be the fact in the case, I cannot say, but I found that 

 a short abstinence considerably increased the disposition 

 of my favourite for food. Major Le Conte remarks, that 

 the land tortoise feeds "on fruit, insects, and edible fungi, 

 particularly the different species of clavaria." The land 

 tortoise of Europe, it is said, lives almost wholly on vege- 

 tables, and that it seldom makes its prey of snails and worms 

 unless other food is not found in grateful plenty. I am 

 disposed to think that our animal is almost wholly carni- 

 vorous. I never knew but one instance of its ever tasting 

 any kind of vegetable, except a mushroom, which, it is well 

 known, approaches nearer to animal substance than any 

 other plant. Neither am I quite sure that the instance 

 alluded to forms an exception, for the tortoise was only 

 seen near a mushroom, which, upon examination, seemed 

 to have been bitten by it. The peculiar structure of the 

 jaws favours, I think, the idea that it is carnivorous; these 

 are armed with bony plates and not with teeth, which 

 seem, in most cases, essential to animals that support life 

 with vegetable nourishment. On one occasion, after an ab- 

 stinence of a week, I threw into my tortoise many kinds 

 of vegetables, such as purslain, lettuce, clover, and dande- 

 lion, but he did not fancy them in the least, and would 

 not eat a mouthful; but animal food of any kind, either raw 

 or cooked, he swallowed with avidity; the common earth- 

 worm appeared to be his favourite dish.* 



* The account which I have given of the diet of my land tortoise, and Ins 

 predilection for animal food, is strictly correct ; but my friend Mr. Titian R. 

 Peale informs me, that in two or three individuals of the testudo clausa 

 which he had domesticated, one seemed to prefer fruits and esculent plants, 

 and another, animal food, a difference of taste probably arising from the 

 greater or less abundance of the kind of food in their natural haunts. This 



K 



The Rev. Mr. White, in the history of his tortoise, re- 

 marks, " that no part of its behaviour ever struck him more 

 than the extreme timidity it always expressed with regard 

 to rain ; for though it has a shell that would secure it 

 against the wheel of a loaded cart, yet does it discover as 

 much solicitude about rain, as a lady dressed in all her 

 best attire, shuffling away on the first sprinkling, and run- 

 ning its head up in a corner. If attended to, it becomes 

 an excellent weather-glass, for as soon as it walks elate, 

 and, as it were, on tip-toe, feeding with great eagerness 

 in the morning, so sure will it rain before night." Now 

 my mute favourite was the reverse of all this, 



He hears the fearful tempest sing, 



Yet seeks no shelter to avoid the storm ; 



whenever a shower fell, he was sure to be in the midst of 

 it, though immediately before I have observed him asleep 

 under his roof. On such occasions he was remarkably 

 active, elevating his head and showing every symptom of 

 pleasure and expectation. I supposed, that, at these wet 

 seasons, he was in search of earth-worms, of which, I have 

 before noticed, he was exceedingly fond, and which gene- 

 rally come from their hiding places during showers. From 

 his love for this kind of food, I also expected to find him not 

 altogether a diurnal animal, but that he would wander 

 about late in the evening, or early in the morning, in 

 search of it, but I never found him away from home after 

 dark, or fairly awake before sun-rise. 



Spirit and activity were, certainly, not among the quali- 

 fications of my interesting captive. Often have I seen him, 

 for hours together, stand motionless as a statue, riveted, 

 apparently, to the spot — his eyes fixed on vacancy, and so 

 absorbed in his contemplations, that no sound would dis- 

 turb his tranquillity. He seemed to sleep, and certainly 

 remained inactive many hours during every day; this he 

 did at one time in a horizontal position, with his hinder feet 



appetite for different kinds of food is very remarkable in the ophidian 

 race. In the Philadelphia Museum I saw, some years since, two rattle- 

 snakes, (Crotali,) in different cages — one of the snakes would devour nothing 

 but mice or other small quadrupeds, and never eat a bird dead or alive ; 

 while the other fed on nothing but birds. In the cage with the first rattle- 

 snake, there was a canary bird kept, and it was surprising to see how fear- 

 lessly and familiarly the little songster would perch on the back and head 

 of the reptile, pick at his eyes, and scrape his bill against his scales. The 

 bird and the snake were kept together a long time. Mr. Peale informs me, 

 that he once possessed a fine large black-snake, (coluber constrictor,) which 

 refused all the ordinary food of which that species of reptile is commonly so 

 fond ; birds, mice, and almost every other ldnd of food, was tried in vain — 

 nothing could provoke him to eat ; it seemed as if he would rather starve to 

 death, than relieve his hunger by any thing that was offered. At last a land 

 lizard, the agama undulata, was placed in his cage ; this he seized and de- 

 voured with great avidity. He was kept alive with the same kind of food 

 for a long time. The snake was captured in the woods of New-Jersey, where 

 the agama is very abundant. 



