784 
which cannot bo allowed to constitute a part 
ol the specific character, since in different in. 
dividuals, eitiier from age, or other circum- 
stances, these parts are found to vary jn num- 
ber, there being sometimes five claws instead 
of four on the tore feet. The tail is about 
the same length with the legs, or rather short- 
er, and is covered with small scales, and ter- 
minates in a naked horny pointed tip or pro- 
cess. 
1 his animal lives to a most extraordinary 
age ; several well attested examples being ad- 
duced of its having considerably exceeded the 
period ot a century. One of the most remarka- 
ble instances is that of a tortoise introduced in- 
to the archiepisc'opal garden at Lambeth, in the 
time of archbishop Laud, and as near as can 
be collected from its history, about the year 
1633, which continued to live there till the 
year 1753, when it was supposed to have pe- 
rished rather from accidental neglect on the 
part of the gardener, than from the mere ef-' 
feet ot age. This tortoise has had the honour 
of being commemorated by Derham, and 
many other writers, and its shell is preserved 
in the library of the palace at Lambeth. 
The general manners of the tortoise, in a 
state of domestication in this country, are 
very agreeably detailed by Mr. White, in 
his history of Selbourn. “A land-tortoise,” 
says Mr. White, “ which has been kept thirty 
years in a little walled court, retires under 
ground about the middle of November, and 
comes forth again about the middle of April. 
When it first appears in the spring, it dis- 
covers very little inclination for food, but in 
the height of summer grows voracious ; and 
then, as the summer declines, its appetite de- 
clines; so that for the last weeks in autumn 
it hardly eats at all. Milky plants, such as 
lettuces, dandelions, sowthistles, &c. are its 
principal food. On the first of November, 
i 771, I remarked that the tortoise began to 
dig the ground, in order to form its hyber- 
naculum, which it had fixed on just beside a 
great tuft of hepaticas. It scrapes out the 
ground with its forefeet, and throws it up 
over its back with its hind, but the motion of 
its legs is ridiculously slow, little exceeding 
the hour-hand of a clock. Nothing can be 
more assiduous than this creature, night and 
day, in scooping the earth, and forcing its 
great body into the cavity ; but as the noons 
ot that season proved unusually warm and 
sunny, it was continually interrupted, and 
called forth by the heat in the middle of the 
day; and though I continued there till the 
thirteenth of November, yet the work re- 
mained unfinished. Harsher weather, and 
frosty mornings, would have quickened its 
operations. No part of its behaviour ever 
struck me more than the extreme timidity it 
always expresses 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 sprinklings, and running its 
head up in a corner. If attended to, it be- 
comes an excellent weather-glass ; for as sure 
as it walks elate, and in a manner on tip-toe, 
feeding with great earnestness, in a morning, 
so sure will it rain before night. It is totally 
-a diurnal animal, and never pretends to stir 
after it becomes dark. 
** The tortoise/’ adds Mr. White, <<r like 
TESTUDO. 
otherreptiles, has an arbitrary stomach, as well 
as iungs, and can retrain from eating, as well 
as breathing, for a great part of the year. 1 
was much taken with its sagacity, in discern- 
ing those that do it kind offices : for as soon as 
the good old lady comes in sight who lias wait- 
ed on it for more than thirty years, it hobbles 
tow ards its benefactress with awkward alacrity; 
but remains inattentive to strangers. Thus, 
not only “ the ox knoweth his owner, and the 
ass his master’s crib,” but the most abject and 
torpid of beings distinguishes the hand that 
feeds it, and is touched with the feelings of 
gratitude. 1 his creature not only goes under 
the earth from the middle of November to the 
middle of April, but sleeps great part of the 
summer : for it goes to bed in the longest 
days at lour in the afternoon, and often does 
not stir in the morning till late. Besides, it 
retires to rest for every shower, and does not 
move at all in wet days. \Y hen one reflects on 
the state of this strange being, it is a matter of 
wonder Providence should bestow such a seem- 
ing waste of longevity on a reptile that appears 
to relish it so little as to squander away more 
than two-thirds of its existence in a joyless stu- 
por, and be lost to all sensation for months 
together in the profoundest of all slumbers ! 
1 hough he loves warm weather, he avoids the 
hot sun; because his thick shell, when once 
healed, would, as the poet says of solid ar- 
moui, ‘ jald with safety/ lie therefore 
spends the more sultry hours under the um- 
brella of a large cabbage-leaf, or amidst the 
waving forests of an asparagus-bed. But as he 
avoids heat in the summer, so in the decline 
of the year, he improves the faint autumnal 
beams, by getting within the reflection of a 
fruit-tree wall ; and though he has never read 
that planes inclining to the horizon receive a 
greater share of warmth, he inclines his shell 
by tilting it against the wall, to collect and ad- 
mit every feeble ray.” 
r , 2. 1 estudo marginata, marginated tortoise. 
I he general colour of this animal is a dark or 
blackish bay ; the middle or convex part of 
the pieces composing the disk, being more or 
less dashed or varied, in an irregular manner, 
with yellow: the marginal pieces are also va- 
riegated with the same colour, which predo- 
minates chiefly on the hindermost or widest 
divisions, which are pretty distinctly striated 
or furrowed, and from their peculiar width or 
dilatation form the chief part of the specific 
character. The under shell is of a pale yel- 
low colour, each division being marked on 
its upper commissure by a transverse black- 
ish band, running into 'a pair of pointed or 
subtriangufar processes, extending nearly to 
the next or inferior division. The outline of 
the shell, if viewed from above, will be found 
to be much longer in proportion than that of 
the testudo graeca, accompanied by a slight 
contraction or sinking in on each side. ° 
1 he true native country of the animal 
seems not very distinctly known. Mr. 
Schoepf is inclined to think it an American 
species. 
3. 1 estudo Indica, Indian tortoise. This ve- 
ry large terrestrial species, which is omitted by 
Linnaeus in the twelfth edition of the Systema 
Naturae, was first described by Perrault in the 
History of Animals published by the Royal 
Academy of f ranee. The. specimen was 
taken on the coast of Coromandel, and mea- 
sured four feet and a half from the tip of the 
nose to the tail ; and its height or convexity 
was fourteen inches: tire shell itself was three 
teet long and two broad, and, like every other, 
part ot the animal, was of a dull-brown co- 
lour: the shield consisted ol a large and dis- 
similar piece, and the edge on the forepart 
was rather reflected, for the easier motion of 
the animal's head : the head was seven inches 
long; the mandiblqs serrated, and furnished 
with an additional internal row of denticula- 
tions; the forelegs were nine inches long: 
the fore feet undiv ided, thick, and armed with 
five blunt claws: the hind legs were eleven 
inches long ; the feet tetradactylous, and arm- 
ed with four claws : the tail six inches thick 
at the base, fourteen inches long, and termi- 
nated by a horny curved process. 
•4. Testudo lutaria, mud-tortoise. This j 
which is supposed by the count de Cepede 
to be the testudo lutaria of Linnaeus, is said 
to be extremely common in many parts of 
Europe, as well as Asia, being found in India, 
Japan, &c. It is, in genera], not more than 
seven or eight inches long from the tip of the 
nose to that of the tail, and about three or 
four inches in breadth: the disk consists 
of thirteen pieces, which are striated and 
shghtly punctuated in the centre, and along 
the middle range runs a longitudinal carina : 
the margin consists of twenty-three pieces, bor- 
dered with slight stria?: thecolour of the shell 
is blackish, more or iess deep in different 
specimens, and the general colour of the skin 
itself is similar : the feet are webbed, and 
there are five toes before, and four behind. 
-Like other tortoises, it sometimes utters a 
kind of broken or interrupted hiss. This 
animal is, according to Cepede, no where 
more common than in France, and is parti- 
cularly plentiful in Languedoc, and in many 
parts ot Provence ; and in a lake of about 
half a league wide, situated in the plain of 
Durance, were found such vast quantities, 
that the neighbouring peasantry were in a 
manner supported by them for more than 
three months together. 
Though thjs species is aquatic, it always 
lays its eggs on land; digging for that pur- 
pose a hollow in the ground, and covering the 
eggs with the mould: the shell is less soft 
than those ot the sea-tortoises or turtles, and I 
the cofour less uniform. When the young are 
first hatched they measure about si'x lines in 
diameter. 1 his animal walks much quicker 
than the land-tortoise, especially when on 
even ground. Jt grows for a long time, and 
has been known to live more than twenty-four 
years. 1 he taste which it has for small snails, 
and such kind of wingless insects as frequent 
the neighbourhood of the waters it inhabits, 
makes it useful in a garden, which it delivers 
from noxious animals, without doing any mis- 
chief itself. Like other tortoises, it may be 1 i I 
rendered domestic, and may be kept in a ba- 
son or receptacle of water, so contrived on 
the edges as to give a ready egress to it when 
it wishes to wander about for prey. The 
count de Cepede adds, that though useful in 
gardens, it is found to be a very troublesome in- 
mate in fish-ponds ; attacking and destroying 
the fish : biting them in such a manner that 
they become enfeebled by loss of blood, and 
then dragging them to the bottom and de- 
vouring them ; leaving only the bones and 
some of the cartilaginous parts of the head, 
and sometimes the air-bladder also, which 
