NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



VERTEBRATA. 



CLASS in— REPTILIA. 



_^„^_„ ^ This order introduces us to creatures difTering 



The Tortoise '^^'"7 Widely, in form and character, from those 



and which we have been considering. There are more 



The Turtle. i\^gj^ two hundred species of the tortoise, and 

 these are grouped into four families. The Common European 

 tortoise is found in the South of France and Italy, as well 

 as in Sicily and Greece. It feeds on vegetables, and under 

 favourable circumstances lives a great number of years. It 

 is slow in its movements but it burrows rapidly and is soon 

 out of sight in the sandy soil it affects. Tortoises are commonly 

 kept in a state of domestication in England, one known to 

 the writer showing a great preference for pansies, eating the 

 flowers and leaving the other parts of the plant. Mr. Wood 

 describes the efforts made by a tortoise in his possession to 

 attain the summit of a footstool, which shows that the reptile 

 has some measure of intelligence. "Unfit as the form of 

 the creature may seem for such a purpose," says Mr. Wood, 

 "it did contrive to scramble upon a footstool which was 

 placed by the fender. Its method of attaining this elevation 

 was as follows: — First it reared up against the footstool in 

 the angle formed by it and the fender, and after several 

 ineffectual attempts, succeeded in hitching the claws of one 

 of its hind feet into the open work of the fender. On this 

 it raised itself, and held on to the top of the stool by its 



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