TKB T0BT0I8B. 



also an oblong patch of a similar colour ninniug down the side 

 of each. The colours of the shell are more or less bright in 

 the various specimens, and are subject to some occasional 

 variations, as well as sometimes in the shape of the pieces 

 themselves. The under part of the shell is of a citron or pale 

 yellow colour, with a brown band on either side, and the centre 

 plain. The head is rather small; the eye small and black; 

 the mouth not extending beyond the eyes ; the legs short with 

 broad feet strongly covered with scales, and furnished each with 

 four substantial claws. Sometimes, however, there are five 

 claws on the fore-feet. The tail, which is very short, is covered 

 with small scales, and terminates in a pointed tip, naked and 

 horny. As to the precise age the tortoise may attain nothing 

 is with certainty known. There is, however, stiU preserved in 

 the library at Lambeth Palace, the shell of a tortoise which 

 was familiar with the palace garden in the time of Archbishop 

 Laud, about the year 1633 ; and there it continued to reside in 

 perfect health till the year 1753, when, being ousted from its 

 winter quarters by a clumsy gardener, and left . exposed to a 

 bitter frost, it was next morning found dead- 



The best advice that can be given to persons desirous of 

 keeping a tortoise is to allow it the run (it wiU not run 

 away) of a garden where grow plants of the juicy order, such 

 as the lettuce, the sow-thistle, and the dandelion, and then 

 leave it entirely to its own devices. During the summer 

 months it will crawl about in a lazy, happy way, eating mode- 

 rately, sleeping soundly, and troubling nobody. As winter 

 approaches if it is let alone it wiU probably dig itself a grave 

 in a flower-bed and bury itself comfortably tiU the sun's re- 

 turning warmth rouses him from his lengthy nap, and he 

 scrambles out of bed to begin another summer. If any 

 farther information is requisite it is to be found in GUbert 

 White's Journal, in which very frequent mention is made of 

 the tortoise Timothy, purchased by the good pastor of Selborne, 

 of old Mrs. Snooks. A few of the most pertinent remarks 

 about Timothy Tortoise wiU be very well worth while ex- 

 tracting from the said Journal and here printing. 



" March 17. Brought away old Mrs. Snooks's tortoise Timothy, 

 which she valued very much, and had treated kindly for nearly 

 forty years. When dug out of its hybernation it resented the 

 insult by hissing. 



" May 14. Timothy travelled about the garden. 



" May 2. Timothy eats. 



