Professor Forbes describes the peculiar way in which he has in Greece observed the Tortoises to do their courting, i.e. the method by which the male Tortoise seeks to attract the attention of his lady-love, namely, by repeatedly knocking his shell violently against hers. I have noticed the same process in my own garden. Both my animals are, I believe, males. But I have observed one of them, when in an amorous humour, to strike the other several times in succession a sounding blow on its shell; and this he does by suddenly withdrawing his head into his shell, so as to be out of harm’s way, and then as suddenly throwing his body forward by a sort of butting process against the shell of his fellow. This proceeding causes a very considerable, and indeed, comparatively speaking, quite a loud and resounding noise; and at first sight these sudden and severe blows would appear to be more calculated to cause corporeal discomfort or injury than to excite affection. These very marked attentions are usually followed by the utterance of a quick and soft, or almost whining cry.
I will only add that my Tortoises show an increasing familiarity and sense of being at home as years roll on.
Addendum.—On November 2nd, 1905, after a further interval of thirteen years, these Tortoises had respectively attained to a weight of 4 lbs. and half an ounce, and 3 lbs. 13½ ozs. as compared with weights of 2 lbs. 10 ozs. and 2 lbs. 5 ozs. in 1886. They are therefore still growing in size and weight. In October of last year (1907) they weighed respectively 4 lbs. 2½ ozs. and 4 lbs.
V.
MY CHRISTMAS GARDEN PARTY. [44]
Norwich is proverbially a City of Gardens, and many of the houses in St. Giles’s Street, including my own, are fortunate enough to share in the advantage of possessing one of these valuable urban appendages.
As regards the birds that frequent these gardens, the neighbourhood of Chapel Field, with its trees and shrubs, is, or should be, an additional attraction to them; but I am bound to say that I have not observed so great a congregation, or so large a variety of birds, in Chapel Field Gardens as might have been expected.
My own garden consists of a plot of grass of fair size, with one large apple tree in its centre, a double laburnum tree close by, and with several other trees of good size on its confines. Some of the boundary walls are covered with ivy. In my neighbours’ gardens are also both trees and shrubs, whilst Chapel Field is in the immediate vicinity, just beyond my stable yard.
There is thus a considerable variety of shelter for the birds, and, doubtless, a proportionate variety of food for them at the proper seasons.
In ordinary years, and in average seasons, the following birds come into my garden:—
1. Our constant town friends, the Sparrows.