The painted turtle receives its name from the beauty of its many-colored shell. The spotted turtle, often called the wood turtle, is distinguished by fine yellow spots sprinkled over its black back. The turtle which I saw feasting on the fungus was the common box tortoise. This box tortoise prefers dry woods, and dislikes the water. It is a long-lived creature. Some specimens have been known to live over a hundred years. A box tortoise that I had, ate meat, insects, and bread and milk from my hand, but if I put berries in its mouth it wiped them out with its front foot used hand-wise, in a very funny way. When it wanted to get away from the balcony, it crawled along the edge looking over, its neck outstretched; when it seemed to decide to go over it suddenly drew itself close into its shell, and making some quick jerk while quite shut up, over it went, came down safe in the grass, and walked away. I watched it do that many times and was never quite sure how it flung itself “overboard” after it was safely shut up. The snapping turtle is a common variety. It has a box or shell too small to close over it and hide it completely. To make up for this lack, it has a bold and hasty temper, and snaps vigorously when disturbed. The gopher is the turtle of the southern pine countries. It is a large, strong animal, with a shell fifteen inches long. These gopher turtles live in troops, a number of families digging their dens or burrows near together. The entrance to the den is about four feet long and expands into a spacious room. In each burrow lives a single pair of gophers. Gophers’ eggs are as large as pigeons’ eggs, and the eggs and flesh are prized by the negroes as food. By day gophers stay at home, by night they wander out and devour yams, melons, corn, and other garden produce. They dislike wet, and go indoors when it rains. A near relative of the gopher is found in Europe, and is often kept about the house for a pet. If it can find its way into a garden in the autumn it digs a hole and hibernates, coming forth in the spring. A friend of mine in London had one of these animals which lived in the kitchen. It was fond of creeping into the fire-place and getting under the grate, where it would lie until the hot coals and ashes dropped upon its back and burnt its shell. When winter came this little animal wanted to take its long sleep, and dug so persistently into boxes, baskets, drawers, and closets that finally a box of earth was given to it, into which it worked its way until out of sight, and there stayed until April. It ate potatoes, carrots, turnips, and bread and milk, which it specially liked. FOOTNOTES: [75] The harpies, we are told, frightened Æneas by saying he would be so hungry that he would eat his plate. But as the Trojans at one of their meals used big cakes of bread for plates, the prophecy was harmlessly fulfilled. LESSON XLII. A REAL LIVE MERMAID.