Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 8, ELE-FOR

:'hap. I- E R P E T
Tortoifes. betl), about the year 1633, and lived till the year
—"v J753 > tlie or" " hich is ftill preferved in the library
of the palace at Lambeth. Another remarkable cir-
cumftance refpefting this individual is, that it was of a
larger fi2e than uftial. The ihell meafured 10 inches
in length, and fix and a half in breadth.
j ten a- None of this order of animals is more tenacious of
iousof lift; than the tortoife. The experiments of Redi afford
ife. a remarkable proof of this fa<ff. In the beginning of
November he made a large opening in the ikull of a
land tortoife, extra&ed the whole of the brain, walked
out the cavity, that no part might remain ; and having
left the hole open, let the animal go. It walked off
feemingly uninjured, excepting that it clofed its eyes,
which never afterwards opened. At the end of three
days, during which time the whole of the {hull began
to clofe, the wound was covered with a complete fidn;
and thus without brain it walked about as ufual, and
lived for fix months. The fame naturalift cut off the
head of another tortoife, which lived for the fpace of
twenty-three days afterwards.
iMiuenee. ihis animal is not lefs remarkable for its abftinence.
Blafms kept an individual of this fpecies for ten months,
during which time it tailed no kind of food whatever.
It died about the end of that time, but this was aferibed
to the feverity of the feafon, rather than to the want of
food; for the inteflines being examined, they were
found full of excrement of the natural colour.
_ Mr White, in his Natural Hiftory of Selborne, has
given fo full and diltindt an account of the natural hif¬
tory of the land tortoife, founded on fadls drawn from
his own. obfervation, that we lhall lay it before our
readers in his own words.
Ate’s ac- “ A land tortoife (fays he), which has been kept for
mntof thirty years in a little walled court belonging to the
houfe where I now am viliting, retires under ground
about the middle of November, and comes forth again
about the middle of April. When it firft appears in
the fpring it, difeovers very little inclination towards
food 5 but in the height of fummer grows voracious :
and then as the fummer declines, its appetite declines 5
fo that for the lalf fix weeks in autumn, it hardly eats
at.alh Milky plants, fuch as lettuces, dandelions, fow-
thiltles, are its favourite dilh. In a neighbouring vil¬
lage one was kept, till by tradition it was fuppofed to
135. be an hundred years old. An inftance of vaft longevity
in. fuch a poor reptile !
“ On the iff of November, I retnarked that it be¬
gan firft to dig the ground in order to the forming its
hybernaculum, which it had fixed on juft befide a great
tuft of hepatieas. It ferapes out the ground with its
fore-feet, and throws it up over its back with its hind j
but the motion of its legs is ridiculoully flow', little ex¬
ceeding the hour-hand of a clock j and fuitable to the
compofure of an animal faid to be a whole month in
performing one feat of copulation. Nothing can be
more, atnduous than this creature night and day in
fcooping the earth, and forcing its great body into the
cavity ; but, as the noons of that feafon proved unufual-
ly warm and funny, it w'as continually interrupted, and
called forth by the heat in the middle of the day ; and
though I continued there till the thirteenth of Novem¬
ber, yet the wmrk remained urifinifhed. Harfher wea-
■her, and frofty mornings, would have quickened its
O L O G Y.
operations. No part of its behaviour ever ftruck me
more than the extreme timidity it always expreffes with
regard to rain j for though it has a ftiell that would fe-
cure it againft the wheel of a loaded cart, yet does it
difeover as much folieitude about rain as a lady dreffed
in all her beft attire, fttuffling aw ay on the firft fprink-
lings, and running its head up in a corner. If attend¬
ed to, it becomes an excellent weather-glafs ■, for as fure
as it walks elate, and as it were on tiptoe, feeding with
great earneftnefs in a morning, fo fure will it rain be¬
fore night. It is totally a diurnal animal, and never
pretends to ftir after it becomes dark. The tortoife,
like other reptiles, has an arbitrary ftomach as well as
lungs 5 and can refrain from eating as well as breathing
for a great part of the year. When firft awakened it
eats nothing 3 nor again in the autumn before it re¬
tires : through the height of the fummer it feeds vora-
cioufly, devouring all the food that comes in its way.
I wras much taken with its fagacity in difeerning thofe
that do it kind offices : for, as foon as the good old lady
comes in fight who has waited on it for more than thirty
years, it hobbles towards its benefaftrefs w ith awkward
alacrity ; but remains inattentive to ftrangers. Thus
not only “ the ox knoweth his owner, and the a/s his
tnafler's crib/ but the moft abjeft reptile, and torpid oihbid. p. 158.
beings, diftinguiffies the hand that feeds it, and is touch¬
ed w'ith the feelings of gratitude !
“ -The old Suffex tortoife, (he adds), that I have men¬
tioned fo often, is become my property. I dug it out
of its winter dormitory in March laft, when it w-as
enough awakened to exprefs its refentments by hilling j
and packing it in a box with earth, carried it eighty
miles in poft-chaifes. The rattle and hurry of the jour¬
ney fo perfe&ly roufed it, that, when I turned it out on
a border, it walked twice down to the bottom of my
garden ; however, in the evening, the weather being
cold, it buried itfelf in the loofe mould, and continues
ftill concealed.
“ As it will be under my eye, I lhall now have an
opportunity of enlarging my obfervations on its mode of
life and propenfities; and perceive already that, to¬
wards.the time of coming forth, it opens a breathing
place in the.ground near its head, requiring, I conclude,
a freer refpiration as it becomes more alive. This crea¬
ture not only goes under the earth from the middle of
November to the middle of April, but lleeps great part
of the fummer j for it goes to bed in the longeft days
at four in the afternoon, and often does not ftir in the
morning till late. Belides, it retires to reft for every
Ihower ; and does not move at all in wet days.
“ When one refletts on the ftate of this ftrange be¬
ing, it is a matter of wonder to find that Providence
ffiould bellow fuch a profulion of days, fuch a feeming
wafte of longevity, on a reptile that appears to reliffi it
fo little as to fquander more than two-thirds of its exift-
ence in a joylefs ftupor, and be loft to all fenfation
for months together in the profoundeft of llumbers.
“ While I was writing, a moift and warm afternoon,
wdth the. thermometer at 50, brought forth troops of
Ihell-fnails; and, at the fame jumfture, the tortoife heav¬
ed up the mould, and put out its head 5 and the next
morning came forth, as it were raifed from the dead,
and walked about till four in the afternoon. This was
a curious coincidence ! a very amuffng occurrence ! to
fee