HOUSE-BEARING REPTILES. 
URTLES are four-legged reptiles, with short, stout, 
oval-shaped bodies encased in bony boxes, from 
which they are able to protrude their heads, legs and tails, 
and into which they can withdraw them, at pleasure. Con- 
siderable diversity exists in the size and shape of the box- 
like covering in the different species. The Box Tortoise can 
retire into his shell or house, closing the under part or plas- 
tron into a groove of the upper edge of the carapace, as the 
upper part is called, thus constituting for his security an im- 
pregnable retreat. There are species only partly enclosed by 
the shell, which cannot bring their heads and feet under cover. 
With his house upon his back the turtle wanders about as 
the snail does, and against his enemies can close its doors 
and be emphatically not athome. He has acute sight and 
hearing, but is devoid of teeth, the jaws being, like those of 
birds, simply cased in horn. Turtles are not altogether 
silent creatures, for many of them are capable of producing 
very loud sounds. 
Their eggs, which have a parchment-like covering, are 
buried in earth or sand, and left to themselves to hatch. The 
sea-turtle, our largest variety, is sometimes found to lay as 
many as two hundred eggs in a heap, and in tropical regions 
has been known to attain a weight of a thousand pounds. 
Even on the Atlantic Coast of the United States individuals, 
weighing upwards of eight hundred pounds, have not infre- 
quently been captured. 
In the four species of sea-turtles, the feet are flat and pad- 
dle-shaped, and the shell of one rather leathery than horny. 
