The female tortoise is larger than the male and, being broad pos¬ 
teriorly, presents a matronly appearance. The male makes his affection 
known to her by bumping her shell and nibbling her limbs. If she is at 
all receptive, they mate to the tune of the male’s guttural bellows, which 
can be heard a quarter of a mile away. 
The female lays her eggs in October and November but, with astonish¬ 
ing acumen, doesn t “put them all in one basket.” Between twenty and thirty 
eggs are laid at one time, and about a week later an additional batch is 
deposited in another site. The eggs are perfectly round and about seven 
inches in circumference. 
In making a nest, the female scoops out a hole about a foot wide 
and fifteen inches deep. The eggs are piled in several layers, between 
each of which the mother packs about an inch of manure. The sides and 
top of the hole are lined with soft earth. Then the mother pounds down 
the top until a hard crust is formed which, theoretically, should protect the 
eggs until they hatch. 
But in spite of her pains few of the eggs ever remain safe. The wild 
dogs of the Galapagos, descendants of tame dogs landed by early voyagers, 
have developed an insatiable love for tortoise eggs. Tens of thousands of 
eggs are broken and eaten yearly by the dogs, and the effect upon the 
birth rate of the tortoises is obvious. Even those tortoises which are hatched 
live in constant danger from the dogs until they attain a length of at least 
one foot and their shells harden sufficiently to resist the canine marauders. 
One might expect that, in self-defense, the giant tortoise would de¬ 
velop an angry ferocity. But it does not. For example, on sighting a man, 
it utters a sharp hiss, withdraws its head and legs into its shell, and flops 
heavily to the ground. 
Man is perhaps a greater and more vicious enemy than the other 
animals. The human invaders have killed hundreds of thousands of full- 
grown specimens to obtain their oil for native cooks and cosmopolitan cos¬ 
meticians. And natives have no compunction about killing a three-hundred- 
pound tortoise just to obtain a few pounds of its meat for a meal. The 
tortoises are still further depleted by scientific expeditions. They do not 
readily reproduce in captivity. 
The attack upon the giant tortoises is believed by Dr. C. H. Townsend 
to have begun as early as the sixteenth century when sailing vessels stopped 
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