36 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
of the yellow rings, noticed by Mr. Le Sueur, in the spe- 
cimen he first discovered on the borders of Lake Erie. The 
Testudo Ferox, ( Trionyx ,) is quite abundant, and arrives 
at a very considerable size. The boys of the village fre- 
quently take it with the hook and line; being excellent 
food, it is not uncommon to find it in our little market, 
which cannot boast of many delicacies. It is said that this 
animal “ is not found in any of the streams which empty 
immediately into the Atlantic ocean, to the northward of 
Savannah.” This is very remarkable, for they are cer- 
tainly very abundant in most of the tributaries of the Mis- 
sissippi, in the Ohio, and in all the streams which flow into 
this mighty river. Why this animal should have been called 
the fierce tortoise , by way of distinction, no one can tell, 
for they seem less disposed to bite than any of the other 
species. 
Testudo Clausa, or Carolina, ( Cistuda .) I have been 
quite surprised and disappointed to find, that the land tor- 
toise, so common throughout the United States, should in 
our village be a total stranger. I have never seen it in 
our woods myself, and upon showing one, which ^brought 
with me from the east of the Alleghanies, to a number of 
the inhabitants, they declared that it was not to be found 
in the neighbourhood. I have but little doubt, however, 
that it may occasionally be seen. I have examined mul- 
titudes in other places, and will here give the result of my 
observations. It would be very difficult to describe all the 
varieties of colour, and markings, found in the different indi- 
viduals of this Protean species. The predominant colours 
are, however, yellow and brown. In most instances the 
number of segments, or pieces which compose the upper 
shell, are thirteen central, and twenty-five marginal ones; 
but, in one instance, I found only eleven scutellae on the 
centre; this remarkable variety is now in the cabinet 
of the College at Princeton. “ The shell is so hard, and 
the animal so strong, that it can easily walk with a weight 
of sixty pounds on his back.” When surprised, or alarm- 
ed, he withdraws his head and limbs, and closes the upper 
and under shells with great muscular force; he thus shuts 
himself in his castle, where he will often remain for hours 
in perfect quietude. Many individuals, either through age 
or corpulence, are unable to withdraw all the parts of 
the body, and accurately to close the upper and under 
shell together, and thus avail themselves of this natural 
defence. Some persons keep these animals in cellars to 
destroy troublesome insects; but I have found that after 
rather bifid, the other is thin and sharp. Base of the shell near the coller 
mella very much depressed ; umbilicus very small. Breadth, more than one- 
fourth of an inch. 
It resembles slightly the H. gularis of Mr. Say, but cannot, I think, be 
confounded with that small species. 
two or three years confinement, in such situations, they 
commonly die. I sent a box of our land tortoises, well 
packed in straw, across the Atlantic, to my friend, J. E. 
Gray, Esq. of the British Museum, 'where they all ar- 
rived, after a voyage of about forty days, in health and 
safety, and are now living, I understand, in the Zoological 
Gardens at London. 
The land tortoise, though apparently so unworthy of at- 
tention, has been for ages the chosen favourite of the cu- 
rious. Derham, and other writers of eminence, have no- 
ticed the memorable tortoise introduced into the Arch- 
episcopal gardens at Lambeth, in the time of Archbishop 
Laud, where it lived one hundred and twenty years, and at 
last died, not apparently from the effects of age, but owing 
to accidental neglect on the part of the gardener. The 
Rev. Mr. White, in his Natural History of Selbourne, has 
given a very amusing account of a domestic land tortoise, 
to which I shall occasionally refer in my account of the 
manners and private history of our own animal, which 
follows. The European tortoise, of Archbishop Laud, and 
of the Rev. Mr. White, is the T. Graeca, and differs much 
in its habits from ours. I received a fine large specimen of 
the Graeca, from the Prince of Musignano, now residing 
near Rome; and have thus had an opportunity of com- 
paring the two animals. 
About the first of May I confined, in a small enclo- 
sure near to my office window, an old tortoise, ( T. Clausa,) 
which had been loitering about the garden for two or three 
years.* Within the enclosure there was a small box, or 
house, to shelter him from the sun and rain, and a little 
* The length of my tortoise, from the end of the nose to the extremity of 
the tail, is exactly eight inches. The breadth of his shell, three inches, and 
his weight one pound. His upper shell is of an oval form, composed of 
thirteen scutellte, or middle pieces, and twenty-four marginal ones, with a 
small elevated oval scale in front ; an elevated ridge running through the 
middle. The under shell is composed of twelve distinct pieces, and is di- 
vided nearly in the middle into two parts, joined together by a tough skin. 
These two pieces are moveable, and when the animal is surprised, these are 
drawn close to the upper shell. The under shell is of a very pale yellow, 
with dark lines, where the twelve different pieces meet each other, and the 
upper one has a ground of pale yellow, with dusky brown marks. The up- 
per part of the head, which is covered with a hard scaly substance, is of the 
same colour with the back. The legs, which are surrounded with ovate 
scales, are of the colour of the under shell, though of a brighter hue. He 
has five stout curved claws on his fore feet, and but four, having less curva- 
tures, on his other feet. His tail is about one-third the length of his legs, 
and is not covered with scales. His skin, on the sides and throat, is yellow- 
ish, sprinkled with minute bright vermillion spots ; that part which sur- 
rounds the neck when extended, envelopes the head when withdrawn. His 
nostrils are placed above the beak ; and his eyes, which seem to be scarcely 
moveable in their sockets, are remarkably intelligent. The iris is of a red- 
dish hazel, and the pupil, which he cannot dilate or contract, is of a shining 
brown. 
