AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
37 
cave excavated in the ground for his retreat from the cold. 
In this last place I expected he would have passed most of 
his time, but in this I found myself mistaken. From the 
circumstance of finding my tortoise so early in the spring, 
I conclude that he generally comes forth from his winter 
retreat, or revives from his torpid state, about the latter end 
of April. His time of appearance must, however, be in 
some measure regulated by the temperature in different 
years. I was agreeably disappointed to find that his ap- 
petite, at this season, was very good, for I had supposed 
that, so shortly after his long sleep, he would have disco- 
vered but little inclination for food, and that he would re- 
serve himself for the height of summer, when I expected 
to find him voracious. I kept a pretty accurate account of 
his diet, and I found but little variation in his appetite 
during the whole season, till the beginning of October, 
when the most delicate morsel would scarcely tempt him 
to eat. Some writers say, that the tortoise will live a 
year and a half without any kind of nourishment; whatever 
may be the fact in the case, I cannot say, but I found that 
a short abstinence considerably increased the disposition 
of my favourite for food. Major Le Conte remarks, that 
the land tortoise feeds “on fruit, insects, and edible fungi, 
particularly the different species of clavaria The land 
tortoise of Europe, it is said, lives almost wholly on vege- 
tables, and that it seldom makes its prey of snails and worms 
unless other food is not found in grateful plenty. I am 
disposed to think that our animal is almost wholly carni- 
vorous. I never knew but one instance of its ever tasting 
any kind of vegetable, except a mushroom, which, it is well 
known, approaches nearer to animal substance than any 
other plant. Neither am I quite sure that the instance 
alluded to forms an exception, for the tortoise was only 
seen near a mushroom, which, upon examination, seemed 
to have been bitten by it. The peculiar structure of the 
jaws favours, I think, the idea that it is carnivorous; these 
are armed with bony plates and not with teeth, which 
seem, in most cases, essential to animals that support life 
with vegetable nourishment. On one occasion, after an ab- 
stinence of a week, I threw into my tortoise many kinds 
of vegetables, such as purslain, lettuce, clover, and dande- 
lion, but he did not fancy them in the least, and would 
not eat a mouthful; but animal food of any kind, either raw 
or cooked, he swallowed with avidity; the common earth- 
worm appeared to be his favourite dish.* 
* The account which I have given of the diet of my land tortoise, and his 
predilection for animal food, is strictly correct ; but my friend Mr. Titian R. 
Peale informs me, that in two or three individuals of the testudo clausa 
which he had domesticated, one seemed to prefer fruits and esculent plants, 
and another, animal food, a difference of taste probably arising from the 
greater or less abundance of the kind of food in their natural haunts. This 
K 
The Rev. Mr. White, in the history of his tortoise, re- 
marks, “ that no part of its behaviour ever struck him more 
than the extreme timidity it always expressed with regard 
to rain ; for though it has a shell that would secure it 
against the wheel of a loaded cart, yet does it discover as 
much solicitude about rain, as a lady dressed in all her 
best attire, shuffling away on the first sprinkling, and run- 
ning its head up in a corner. If attended to, it becomes 
an excellent weather-glass, for as soon as it walks elate, 
and, as it were, on tip-toe, feeding with great eagerness 
in the morning, so sure will it rain before night.” Now 
my mute favourite was the reverse of all this, 
He hears the fearful tempest sing, 
Yet seeks no shelter to avoid the storm ; 
whenever a shower fell, he was sure to be in the midst of 
it, though immediately before I have observed him asleep 
under his roof. On such occasions he was remarkably 
active, elevating his head and showing every symptom of 
pleasure and expectation. I supposed, that, at these wet 
seasons, he was in search of earth-worms, of which, I have 
before noticed, he was exceedingly fond, and which gene- 
rally come from their hiding places during showers. From 
his love for this kind of food, I also expected to find him not 
altogether a diurnal animal, but that he would wander 
about late in the evening, or early in the morning, in 
search of it, but I never found him away from home after 
dark, or fairly awake before sun-rise. 
Spirit and activity were, certainly, not among the quali- 
fications of my interesting captive. Often have I seen him, 
for hours together, stand motionless as a statue, riveted, 
apparently, to the spot — his eyes fixed on vacancy, and so 
absorbed in his contemplations, that no sound would dis- 
turb his tranquillity. He seemed to sleep, and certainly 
remained inactive many hours during every day; this he 
did at one time in a horizontal position, with his hinder feet 
appetite for different kinds of food is very remarkable in the ophidian 
race. In the Philadelphia Museum I saw, some years since, two rattle- 
snakes, (Crotali,) in different cages — one of the snakes would devour nothing 
but mice or other small quadrupeds, and never eat a bird dead or alive ; 
while the other fed on nothing but birds. In the cage with the first rattle- 
snake, there was a canary bird kept, and it was surprising to see how fear- 
lessly and familiarly the little songster would perch on the back and head 
of the reptile, pick at his eyes, and scrape his bill against his scales. The 
bird and the snake were kept together a long time. Mr. Peale informs me, 
that he once possessed a fine large black-snake, ( coluber constrictor ,) which 
refused all the ordinary food of which that species of reptile is commonly so 
fond ; birds, mice, and almost every other kind of food, was tried in vain — 
nothing could provoke him to eat ; it seemed as if he would rather starve to 
death, than relieve his hunger by any thing that was offered. At last a land 
lizard, the agama undulata , was placed in his cage ; this he seized and de- 
voured with great avidity. He was kept alive with the same kind of food 
for a long time. The snake was captured in the woods of New- Jersey, where 
the agama is very abundant. 
