NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE.
VERTEBRATA.
CLASS II—REPTILIA,

This order introduces us to creatures differing

ORDER I. A ;
he Tortoise Very Widely, in form and character, from those
and which we have been considering. There are more
The Turtle. than two hundred species of the tortoise, and
these are grouped into four families. The Common European
tortoise is found in the South of France and Italy, as well
as in Sicily and Greece. It feeds on vegetables, and under
favourable circumstances lives a great number of years. It
is slow in its movements but it burrows rapidly and is soon
out of sight in the sandy soil it affects. Tortoises are commonly
kept in a state of domestication in England, one known to
the writer showing a great preference for pansies, eating the
flowers and leaving the other parts of the plant. Mr. Wood
describes the efforts made by a tortoise in his possession to
attain the summit of a footstool, which shows that the reptile
has some measure of intelligence. “Unfit as the form of
the creature may seem for such a purpose,” says Mr. Wood,
“it did contrive to scramble upon a footstool which was
placed by the fender. Its method of attaining this elevation
was as follows:—First it reared up against the footstool in
the angle formed by it and the fender, and after several
ineffectual attempts, succeeded in hitching the claws of one
of its hind feet into the open work of the fender. On this
it raised itself, and held on to the top of the stool by its

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