to try on the new. This also is found to be inconvenient; and it quickly returns to its old shell again. In this manner it frequently changes, till at last it finds one light, roomy, and commodious; to this it adheres, though the shell be sometimes so large as to hide the body of the animal, claws and all.*

Yet it is not till after many trials, but many combats also, that the soldier is thus completely equipped; for there is often a contest between two of them for some well-looking favourite shell for which they are rivals. They both endeavour to take possession; they strike with their claws; they bite each other, till the weakest is obliged to yield, by giving up the object of dispute. It is then that the victor immediately takes possession, and parades it in his new conquest three or four times backward and forward upon the strand before his envious antagonist.

When this animal is taken it sends forth a feeble cry, endeavouring to seize the enemy with its nippers; which if it fastens upon, it will sooner die than quit the grasp. The wound is very painful, and not easily cured. For this reason, and as it is not much esteemed for its flesh, it is generally permitted to return to its old retreat to the mountains in safety. There it continues till the necessity of changing once more, and the desire of producing an offspring, expose it to fresh dangers the year ensuing.

* Pere du Festre.

CHAP. II.

Of the Tortoise and its Kinds.

HAVING described the lobster and the crab as animals in some measure approaching to the insect tribes, it will appear like injustice to place the Tortoise among the number, that, from its strength, its docility, and the warm red blood that is circulating in its veins, deserves to be ranked even above the fishes. But as this animal is covered, like the lobster; with a shell, as it is of an amphibious nature, and brings forth its young from the egg without hatching; we must be content to degrade it among animals that in every respect it infinitely

surpasses.

Tortoises are usually divided into those that live upon land, and those that subsist in the water; and use has made a distinction even in the name; the one being called Tortoises, the other Turtles. However, Seba has proved that all tortoises are amphibious; that the land tortoise will live in the water; and that the sea turtle can be fed upon land. A land tortoise was brought to him, that was caught in one of the canals of Amsterdam, which he kept for half a year in his house, where it lived very well contented in both elements. When in the water it remained with its head above the surface; when placed in the sun, it seemed delighted with its beams, and continued immoveable while it felt their

warmth. The difference, therefore, in these animals, arises rather from their habits than their conformation; and, upon examination, there will be less variety found between them than between birds that live upon land, and those that swim upon the water.

Yet though Nature seems to have made but few distinctions among these animals, as to their conformation, yet, in their habits they are very dissimilar; as these result from the different qualities of their food, and the different sorts of enemies they have to avoid or encounter. I will therefore exhibit their figure and conformation under one. common description, by which their slight differences will be more obvious; and then I will give a separate history of the manners of each, as naturalists and travellers have taught us.

All tortoises, in their external form, pretty much resemble each other; their outward covering being, composed of two great shells, the one laid upon the other, and only touching at the edges; however, when we come to look closer, we shall find that the upper shell is composed of no less than thirteen pieces, which are laid flat upon the ribs, like the tiles of a house, by which the shell is kept arched and supported. The shells both above and below that, which seem, to an inattentive observer, to make each but one piece, are bound together at the edges by very strong and hard ligaments, yet with some small share of motion. There are two holes at either edge of this vaulted body; one for a very small head, shoulders, and arms, to peep through; the other, at the opposite edge, for the feet and the tail. These shells the animal is never disengaged