WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 
“ the tortoise lives upon snails, slugs, and every other kind 
of varmint.” 
In hot climates the tortoises do not hibernate or become 
torpid, but continue to move about, and feed at all seasons. 
This refers not only to those that pass their lives on 
land, but also to those that live in the water. In tem- 
perate or cold climates, however, the latter leave the 
water in winter, and retire into holes in the banks or 
sheltered damp places during the cold season, while 
the former dig holes in the dry bank or earth, and bury 
themselves sufficiently deep in the ground or under 
decayed leaves, etc., in order to escape the cold. 
As an instance of the torpidity of these animals we may 
quote the following fact, viz. : — The curator of a well- 
known museum of Natural History was sitting one night 
quietly and snugly in his cl i air in the fond delusion that 
the only living creature in the place was himself, when he 
was suddenly startled from his reverie by the smashing of 
glass and a loud noise at the far end of the museum ; he 
started to his feet, and, with lamp in hand, rushed to the 
spot whence proceeded the noise, when his consternation 
increased on observing some of the newly varnished and 
labelled specimens of tortoises quitting the shelves and 
rolling about in strange confusion. The innocent cause of 
this commotion turned out to be one of the recently-added 
specimens, which was picked up in a room below as dead, 
and dried, and was varnished and labelled and placed with 
the others. It was, at the time of being placed in the 
case, only in a state of torpor, from which the warmth of 
the room roused it, and realizing at once the solemnity of 
its position in being placed in the row with its defunct 
relatives, it commenced to travel, tumbling off the shelf, as 
it went on, all the empty and untenanted shells of departed 
tortoises in its way, much to the alarm of our friend. 
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