THE SAVAGE WORLD. 215 
shell is dark brown, sprinkled with yellow lines, and the bill is slightly 
hooked. 
Salt Water Terrapin ( Malaclefyys ) is a name given to the best known 
variety in the two Americas because of the excellence of its flesh. The head 
is large and covered with a spongy skin, on which account it is sometimes 
called the soft terrapin. Its natural habitat is salt marshes but from which it 
occasionally strays short distances. At the approach of winter it digs a hole 
at the edge of a marsh and retires therein until the warm season returns. 
They are very timid and active either in or out of water, being extremely diffi¬ 
cult to take except when they begin to deposit their eggs, in the early summer 
months, at which time immense numbers are caught and sold in the market. 
Its color is variable, but most generally a dark green on top, with yellow 
flecks on the edge plates. The head is marked with sprinkled white and 
small black spots, and the 
lower jaw is armed with 
a hooked beak. 
Box Tortoise ( Tes- 
tudo Carolina) is a very 
appropriate title applied 
to a common variety found 
all over the United States 
east of the Western alkali 
regions. It is peculiar in 
the singular respect of 
being able to shut itself 
entirely within the shell 
by reason of the plastron 
being divided so as to 
work on a hinge both the 
anterior and posterior 
parts. When danger 
threatens, its legs and 
head quickly disappear 
within, the tail curled tightly behind, and no part left exposed. In this con¬ 
dition it may be violently used without forcing it to protrude the head or legs. 
Fire laid on the plastron, however, will cause it to seek escape, which cruel 
means is sometimes employed. It is found generally in dry places in the 
woods, but often comes into our gardens in search of insects, such as slugs, 
grubs and crickets, and is not averse to taking an egg or even a young chick. 
It is easily tamed and in captivity will eat apples, oranges or nearly any fruit, 
and when these are scarce it is content with meat and bread. 
Though all the tortoise varieties are known to attain great age, the box 
tortoise is specially noted for its longevity, the duration of its life having been 
approximated by the cutting of a date on its shell and releasing it. This cus¬ 
tom is quite common and has been so for many score of years, so that tortoises 
have been found with dates cut showing as much as seventy-five years to have 
elapsed since the time of the marking. 
Concerning the probable age attained by this animal, Goldsmith says: 
“ Tortoises are commonly known to exceed eighty years old; and there was 
GREEK tortoise (Testudo grcBca). 
