Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/28

20 and other leaves, bread, &c. "It may be even conveniently kept in a cellar, and fed on oats, which, being scattered on the floor, take root there, and as they begin to sprout up, afford a wholesome nutriment to this reptile." We are informed by Wolff that the peasants in Prussia keep numbers of these creatures in troughs for a year or two, and fatten them up.

On approaching a pond where these reptiles abound, numbers of them may be seen of various sizes, from that of a penny upwards, sitting motionless on the twigs and branches of fallen trees, or the projecting points of any other substance that is partly submerged. They are very