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(Land Tortoises.)

In this Family the carapace is very high and convex, solid in structure, and covered with a horny shell. The general form may be illustrated by the common Greek Tortoise (Testudo Græca), familiar to most of our readers. But the principal and most remarkable peculiarity, and that which most perfectly indicates the manner of life common to the group, is the conformation of the limbs: the feet are short and stumpy, nearly of equal length, with toes scarcely distinct, immovable, united by a thick skin, and forming a sort ​of truncated mass, "callous in its periphery, on the outside of which one distinguishes only horny cases, a sort of hoofs, which for the most part

FOOT OF TORTOISE.

correspond with the last phalanges [or joints] they incase, and consequently shew that these animals live only on the land, never in the water."^[1]

The feet, as well as the head, are capable of being completely drawn within the bony shell. Some of the species have the hinder part of the carapace flexible, so that it can be brought down to the plastron; while others have the front plates of the plastron jointed to the rest by an actual hinge, so that they can shut up the head as in a sort of box.

The food of the members of this Family consists exclusively of vegetables: their motions are slow and awkward: they live to an immense age, individuals having been ascertained to be above two hundred years old. In temperate climates, they burrow into the earth on the approach of winter, where they remain inert.

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Genus Testudo. (Linn.)

The technical characters of this genus are that the fore-feet are furnished with five toes each, the hind with four; the carapace is composed of a single piece; the anterior part of the plastron is not moveable. Above twenty species are described, principally inhabiting the tropical regions; many of these attain a gigantic size, to which our little European species present no approach.

One of the most interesting of these giant

INDIAN TORTOISE.

Tortoises is that described by Mr. Darwin as inhabiting the Galapagos Islands. It is probably the ​Testudo nigra of Quoy and Gaimard. In these equinoctial islands it has been abundant from the time of Dampier, who observes, that five or six hundred men might subsist on them for several months without any other sort of provisions, adding, that they are so extraordinarily large and fat, and so sweet that no pullets eat more pleasantly.

The day on which Mr. Darwin visited the little craters in the Galapagos Archipelago was glowing hot, and the scrambling over the rough surface, and through the intricate thickets, was very fatiguing. "But," says Mr. Darwin, "I was well repaid by the Cyclopean scene. In my talk I met two large Tortoises, each of which must have weighed at least two hundred pounds. One was eating a piece of cactus, and when I approached it looked at me, and then quietly walked away; the other gave a deep hiss, and drew in his head. These huge reptiles, surrounded by the black lava, the leafless shrubs, and large cacti, appeared to my fancy like some antediluvian animals."

Mr. Darwin states his belief that these Tortoises are found in all the islands of the Archipelago; certainly in the greater number; and thus continues his description:—"They frequent, in preference, the high damp parts, but likewise inhabit the lower and arid districts. Some individuals grow to an immense size. Mr. Lawson, an Englishman, who had, at the time of our visit, charge of the colony, told us that he had seen several so large that it required six or eight men to lift them from the ground, and that some had afforded as much as two hundred pounds of meat. The old males are the largest, the females rarely growing to so great a size. The male can readily ​be distinguished from the female by the greater length of its tail. The Tortoises which live on those islands where there is no water, or in the lower and arid parts of the others, chiefly feed on the succulent cactus. Those which frequent the higher and damper regions eat the leaves of various trees, a kind of berry (called guayavita), which is acid and austere, and likewise a pale green filamentous lichen, that hangs in tresses from the boughs of the trees. The Tortoise is very fond of water, drinking large quantities, and wallowing in the mud. The larger islands alone possess springs, and these are always situated towards the central parts, and at a considerable elevation. The Tortoises therefore, which frequent the lower districts, when thirsty, are obliged to travel from a long distance. Hence, broad and well-beaten paths radiate off in every direction from the wells even down to the sea-coast; and the Spaniards, by following them up, first discovered the watering places. When I landed at Chatham Island, I could not imagine what animal travelled so methodically along the well-chosen tracts. Near the springs it was a curious spectacle to behold many of these great monsters; one set eagerly travelling onwards with outstretched necks, and another set returning, after having drunk their fill. When the Tortoise arrives at the spring, quite regardless of any spectator, it buries its head in the water, above its eyes, and greedily swallows great mouthfuls, at the rate of about ten in a minute. The inhabitants say that each animal stays three or four days in the neighbourhood of the water, and then returns to the lower country; but they differed in their accounts ​respecting the frequency of these visits. The animal probably regulates them according to the nature of the food which it has consumed. It is, however, certain, that Tortoises can subsist even on those islands where there is no other water than what falls during a few rainy days in the year.

"I believe it is well ascertained, that the bladder of the frog acts as a reservoir for the moisture necessary to its existence; such seems to be the case with the Tortoise. For some time after a visit to the springs, the bladder of these animals is distended with fluid, which is said gradually to decrease in volume and to become less pure. The inhabitants, when walking in the lower district, and overcome with thirst, often take advantage of this circumstance, by killing a Tortoise, and if the bladder is full, drinking its contents. In one I saw killed, the fluid was quite limpid, and had only a very slightly bitter taste. The inhabitants, however, always drink first the water in the pericardium, which is described as being best. The Tortoises, when moving towards any definite point, travel by night and by day, and arrive at their journey's end much sooner than would be expected. The inhabitants, from observation on marked individuals, consider that they can move a distance of about eight miles in two or three days. One large Tortoise which I watched, I found walked at the rate of sixty yards in ten minutes, that is, three hundred and sixty in the hour, or four miles a day—allowing also a little time for it to eat on the road. They were at this time (October) laying their eggs. The female, where the soil is sand, deposits them together, and covers them up with sand; but where the ground ​is rocky, she drops them indiscriminately in any hollow. Mr, Bynoe found seven placed in a line in a fissure. The egg is white and spherical; one which I measured was seven inches and three-eighths in circumference. The young animals, as soon as they are hatched, fall a prey in great numbers to the buzzard with the habits of the caracara. The old ones seem generally to die from accidents, as from falling down precipices: at least, several of the inhabitants told me they had never found one dead without some such apparent cause. The inhabitants believe that these animals are absolutely deaf; certainly they do not overhear a person walking close behind them. I was always amused, when, overtaking one of these great monsters as it was quietly pacing along, to see how suddenly, the instant I passed, it would draw in its head and legs, and uttering a deep hiss, fall to the ground with a heavy sound, as if struck dead. I frequently got on their backs, and then, upon giving a few raps on the hinder part of the shell, they would rise up and walk away; but I found it very difficult to keep my balance. The flesh of this animal is largely employed, both fresh and salted; and a beautifully clear oil is prepared from the fat. When a Tortoise is caught, the man makes a slit in the skin near its tail, so as to see, inside its body, whether the fat under the dorsal plate is thick. If it is not, the animal is liberated; and it is said to recover soon from this strange operation. In order to secure the Tortoises, it is not sufficient to turn them like Turtle, for they are often able to regain their upright position."^[2]

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