Chap. IX.] 



THE TORTOISE. 



289 



feigned death and lay motionless, with its eye sclosed ; 

 but, on being pricked with a spear, it suddenly regained 

 all its activity. It was at last finished by a harpoon, 

 and then opened. Its maw contained several small 

 tortoises, and a quantity of broken bricks and gravel, 

 taken medicinally, to promote digestion. 



During our journeys we had numerous opportunities 

 of observing the habits of these hideous creatures, and 

 I am far from considering them so formidable as they 

 are usually supposed to be. They are evidently not 

 wantonly destructive ; they act only under the influence 

 of hunger, and even then their motions on land are 

 awkward and ungainly, their action timid, and their 

 whole demeanour devoid of the sagacity and courage 

 which characterise other animals of prey. 



Testudi^ata. Tortoise.— Land tortoises are numerous, 

 but present no remarkable features beyond the beautiful 

 marking of the starred variety which is common in the 

 north-western province around Putlam and Chilaw, and 

 is distinguished by the bright yellow rays which diversify 

 the deep black of its dorsal shield. From one of these 

 which was kept in my garden I took a number of flat 

 ticks {Ixodes), which adhere to its fleshy neck in such 

 a position as to baffle any attempt of the animal itself 

 to remove them ; but as they are exposed to constant 

 danger of being crushed against the plastron during 

 the protrusion and retraction of the head, each is 

 covered with a horny case almost as resistant as the 

 carapace of the tortoise itself. Such an adaptation of 

 structure is scarcely less striking than that of the 



fell, and sunk with it to the Supreme Court, 10th Jany., 186L 

 bottom." — Letter from G-oone- 1 Testudo stellata. 

 ratne Modliar, interpreter of the 



U 



