69 
Carolina Box-tortoise. — This one is also a hinged tortoise, but 
here it is the pl.astron, not the carapace, that is flexible. When the 
animal is alarmed or sleeping, the head and limbs are withdrawn 
and the movable portions of the shell, both before and behind, are 
tightly held against the carapace. In this position only the shell is 
visible, the softer parts of the tortoise being completely hidden and 
protected. It is this ability to close that has earned for these 
creatures their popular title of Box-tortoises. The Carolina species 
is chiefly nocturnal and inhabits the United States and Mexico. 
1 here it lives, for the_ most part in marshy districts where it can find 
abundance of water insects, worms, and such creatures which form 
is staple diet (lo to 12 inches). 
European Pond Tortoise. — This is the reptile commonly sold 
by dealers as the Water Tortoi>e or the Freshwater Turtle. Its 
colour is a bluish black above, profusely spotted or spla.shed with 
yellow. The under shell is, as a rule, a pale chrome with darker 
edgings to the shields. It can be bought very cheaply in London 
and elsewhere during the summer months, and will do very well if 
supplied with plenty of water which it can enter or leave at will. It 
feeds beneath the surface on all kinds of fi.sh, water insects, and 
worms, and in captivity will readily partake of small pieces of raw 
meat (10 to 12 inches). 
^ Derbian Sternothere. — The Sternotheres are terrapins very 
similiar to the last species in appearance, feeding and living in the 
same way. They are, however, usually stouter built and have 
shorter tails. The Derbian variety is almost black with light spots 
on the head and fore legs. As it spends by far the greater part 
of its time in water, its shell is often a veritable forest of vegetation 
on account of the green plants, or algse as they are called, which 
grow in profusion on the carapace to 2 feet). 
The Snapping Turtle is a native of North America, where it 
grows to quite a large size for a terrapin. Someone has fancied a 
resemblance between it and an alligator, for it is often called an 
Alligator-terrapin. It is almost exclusively aquatic and carnivorous 
(4 to 4 % feet). 
The Bungoma River Turtle is one of the soft tortoises They 
have earned tliis name “ soft ” on account of the leathery and .spongy 
shell which contains them. The one figured in our illustrations, 
when closed, looked like the top of a huge toadstool in colour and 
shape, for it is almost circular, and a dnrk brown above and pinkish 
below. Like most of the aquatic tortoises, it is entirely carnivorous, 
living on the soft-bodied creatures which share its haunts (10 to 12 
inches). 
Wall Gecko. — This little lizard for many centuries has been 
credited with almost every kind of evil. People did not understand 
it, and consequently, as is usual in such cases, they invented 
anecdotes to make up for their lack of knowledge. If anything went 
wrong in the countries where they lived it was put down to the geckos. 
The disease of leprosy was gravely attributed to a gecko having 
crawled over the affected person. Needless to say these little crea- 
tures are perfectly harmless in everyway. Their habits, however, 
are indeed very curious. The one figured was able to run along .a 
ceiling, in an inverted position of course, as fast as a mouse could 
travel along the ground. It could also run up and down a window- 
pane like a fly. Some of these lizards are able to give vent to a kind 
of chirp-like noise, which is said to sound like “ Gee— ko,'* hence the 
