WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



" the tortoise lives upon snails, slugs, and every other kind 

 of varmint." 



In hot climates the tortoises do not hibernate or become 

 torpid, but continue to move about, and feed at all seasons. 

 This refers not only to those that pass their lives on 

 land, but also to those that live in the water. In tem- 

 perate or cold climates, however, the latter leave the 

 water in winter, and retire into holes in the banks or 

 sheltered damp places during the cold season, while 

 the former dig holes in the dry bank or earth, and bury 

 themselves sufficiently deep in the ground or under 

 decayed leaves, etc., in order to escape the cold. 



As an instance of the torpidity of these animals we may 

 quote the following fact, viz. : — The curator of a well- 

 known museum of Natural History was sitting one night 

 quietly and snugly in his chair in the fond delusion that 

 the only living creature in the place was himself, when he 

 was suddenly startled from his reverie by the smashing of 

 glass and a loud noise at the far end of the museum ; he 

 started to his feet, and, with lamp in hand, rushed to the 

 spot whence proceeded the noise, when his consternation 

 increased on observing some of the newly varnished and 

 labelled specimens of tortoises quitting the shelves and 

 rolling about in strange confusion. The innocent cause of 

 this commotion turned out to be one of the recently-added 

 specimens, which was picked up in a room below as dead, 

 and dried, and was varnished and labelled and placed with 

 the others. It was, at the time of being placed in the 

 case, only in a state of torpor, from which the warmth of 

 the room roused it, and realizing at once the solemnity of 

 its position in being placed in the row with its defunct 

 relatives, it commenced to travel, tumbling ofif the shelf, as 

 it went on, all the empty and untenanted shells of departed 

 tortoises in its way, much to the alarm of our friend. 



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