Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/18

10 body along, but unable to restore the prone position if the animal be laid on its back. The feet seem like stumps abruptly cut off, armed around the edge with a set of blunt nails, which serve as a sort of grapplings to hold on the surface of the ground and drag the body forwards. To an animal which feeds on herbs, the power of pursuit is useless; nor is it necessary that swiftness in escape should be conferred on one which can draw in its head and limbs on the approach of danger, presenting only a solid case of mail, in which it may defy every enemy but man.

On the other hand, the marine species swim with great rapidity, rushing along beneath the surface like a bird on the wing. The feet take the form of powerful fins, and the form of the body is flattened, and thinned to an edge, both of these provisions facilitating progression through a dense medium. "But the well-developed flipper that enables the Marine Tortoise to oar its way with swiftness, is even a worse organ for land-progression than the clumsy foot of a Land Tortoise. Not but that they will shuffle back to the sea, which they have only occasion to leave in order to deposit their eggs, at a good pace, and they will deal heavy blows with their flippers to those who attempt to stop them, (for they, as well as the Land Tortoises, are very strong,) as those who have been foiled in turning Turtles have known to their cost."

The eggs are of an oval form, and are covered with a white calcareous shell, much resembling those of birds. Those of many of the species are eaten by man.

The food of the Testudinata is various: the