Reptiles and Birds / A Popular Account of Their Various Orders, With a Description of the Habits and Economy of the Most Interesting

by Louis Figuier

Land Tortoises.

Terrestrial Tortoises are distinguished by their short, oval, and convex bodies, covered by carapace and plastron; four feet, and the absence of teeth; short, stumpy, unshapely legs; nearly equal toes, armed with claws, united by a thick skin, so as to form a clumsy foot, the periphery of which forms a sort of hoof, which seems adapted for the land.

In this group the carapace is very convex, its height sometimes exceeding its breadth; it forms a solid, generally an immovable, arch, under which the animal can completely conceal its feet and tail. This buckler is covered with large horny plates or scales.

Land Tortoises have been known from the earliest times, representations of them being found on numerous monuments of antiquity, the product of ancient art. Moreover, ancient writers tell us that the carapace of the Tortoise contributed its substance to the formation of the first lyre; it was consequently sacred to Mercury as the deity of music and inventor of that instrument.

The Land Tortoises are divided into four genera, which Duméril and Bibron again divide into three sub-genera and thirty species. The most interesting species, however, to which we must limit our remarks are—the Marginate Tortoise, Testudo marginato; the Moorish Tortoise, Testudo Mauritianica; the Greek Tortoise, Testudo Græca; and the Elephantine Tortoise, Testudo elephantina.

Fig. 35.—Testudo Mauritianica.

The Margined Tortoise, which was long confounded with the Greek Tortoise, is found abundantly throughout the Morea, in Egypt, and upon the Barbary coasts. The carapace is oval in form, oblong, convex, and much dilated at the posterior margin, and nearly horizontal; the plastron is movable behind, which is its chief sub-generic character; the tail is thick, conical, and scarcely issues from the carapace. The plates of the disc are of a blackish-brown, presenting towards the centre certain spots of a beautiful yellow colour; the marginal plates are habitually ornamented with two triangular spots, one yellow, the other black. The underpart of the body is of a dirty yellow, with one large triangular black spot upon six or eight of the sternal scales. This Tortoise is of medium size.

The Moorish Tortoise, Testudo Mauritianica, is commonly found in the neighbourhood of Algiers, and along the coast of Morocco, whence those are sent which are sold in the Paris markets. When shooting in Morocco, scarcely a day would pass without the setters or pointers finding numbers of them, to which they would stand with as much staunchness as game. The scent they emit is so powerful as to be easily detected by a human being. The carapace of this species is also convex; the sternum is also movable behind: it is generally olive-coloured. The plates of the disc are marked with blackish spots, and sometimes with a buckle of the same colour, which covers their circumference on the front and sides. The plates of the plastron, the ground of which is olive, have each a large black spot in the centre. This species is rather smaller than the Marginate Tortoise.

The Greek Tortoise, Testudo Græca, is of small dimensions, scarcely exceeding twelve inches in length. They inhabit Greece, Italy, some of the Mediterranean isles, and the south of France, from whence it seems to have been transplanted into Italy. They feed upon herbs, roots, slugs, and lob-worms. Like all their race, they sleep during the winter, passing this season in holes which they excavate in the soil sometimes more than thirty inches deep. As the month of May approaches they issue from their retreat, resorting to some sheltered sandy place, where they bask themselves in the sun's rays. Towards the month of June the females lay from twelve to fourteen white spherical eggs, as large as a small walnut; they dispose these eggs in a hole exposed to the sun; but covered over with earth. Thus the operation of hatching is performed. The carapace of this species is oval and very much arched; their marginal plates are twenty-five in number; the plastron, which is almost as long as the carapace, is separated into two great portions by a longitudinal line; the plates of the carapace are spotted with black and greenish yellow, forming a large marbled pattern; the centre of the disc is besides relieved by a small, irregular, blackish, central spot. These three species are held in high estimation on account of their flesh, which gives an agreeable taste to soup.

The Elephantine Tortoise, Testudo elephantina, the length of which is more than three feet, inhabits most of the islands situated in the Mozambique Channel—namely, between the eastern coast of Africa and the Isle of Madagascar. The Museum of Natural History at Paris had specimens of this Tortoise which lived more than twelve months, and which weighed about six hundred pounds. Their flesh is extremely delicate, and much sought after.

In some other Terrestrial Tortoises, from which the genus Pyxis has been formed, the anterior portion of the plastron is movable; and when the head and feet are drawn in, the animal can fasten itself against the sides of the carapace like a door in its case.

In some Terrestrial Tortoises, which have been formed into particular genera, the carapace is flexible, and can lower itself behind like the plastron; these are Kinixys. Lastly, there are others which, for legs, have only four unguiculated toes: such as the Homopodes.