l6o THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
house ill the Regent’s Park Zoological Gardens. It usually lay prone at the bottom of 
its tank, giving little of no signs of life throughout the day, but was wont to displav 
more activity and to move about its tank at night. At times, when ready for a fresh 
food-supply, it was observed that it would lie motionless as a stone, as usual, but with its 
mouth open to its widest gape. This attitude it would maintain for several hours together. 
The singularity of this action was that the gaping jaws displayed to view two elongate 
worm-like structures, which sprang close to one another from the floor of the mouth just 
within its entrance. These worm-like appendages were continually writhing to and fro, and 
presented in both aspect and movements a most remarkable resemblance to actual living 
worms. With this naturally provided decoy for fish there can be no need for the snapper to 
exhaust its energies in the strenuous 
pursuit of its quarry. To make the 
delusion complete, the head, neck, 
and chin of Temminck’s snapper are 
decorated with small lobular or leaf- 
like membranous appendages resem- 
bli ng sponges or aquatic vegetation. 
The solid grey-brown triangular head 
of the animal itself might easily be 
mistaken for a piece of rock, and 
thus decorated with seemingly 
natural growths the unwary fish come 
browsing along it, rush upon the 
wriggling worms at the entrance of 
the cavernous chamber, and are lost. 
A photograph of this interesting 
Chelonian is reproduced on page 560, 
which depicts it with its mouth open, 
and indicates both the position and 
the presence of the worm-like decoy- 
appendages. 
There are several water-tortoises 
presenting a considerable external 
resemblance to the forms already 
noticed which belong to distinct 
family groups. Thus the Matamata 
Tortoise of Northern Brazil has at 
first sight, except for its short tail 
and nose-like proboscis, much in com- 
mon with Temminck’s snapper. Fim- 
briated and foliaceous membranous 
outgrowths are developed on the head and neck to a much more luxuriant degree, and 
it would be interesting to ascertain if it possesses similar decoy-appendages inside the mouth. 
The so-called Snake-NECKED WaTER-TORTOISES of South America, and the LONG-NECKED 
aquatic ones of Australasia, possess modifications of skull-structure and other details that 
indicate family distinctness. A broad external character that serves to separate this group 
from the Terrapins and all preceding forms is that the neck, when drawn within the cavity 
of the carapace, is not flexed in the form of the letter S, but simply bent sideways along 
the anterior margin of the body. The species belonging to this group, which includes 
the Matamata, Snake-necked, and Soft-shelled Water-tortoises, and also a few essentially 
terrestrial species, are distinguished collectively by the appellation of the “ SiDE-NECKED ** 
Tortoises. 
Fhoto by S, G. Payne Of Son^ j4ylesburyy by permission of the lion. Walter Rothschild 
ELEPHANT-TORTOISE 
Illustrating the ample chamber-like space provided ivithin the carapace for the 
retraction of the head and limbs 
