tortoise 491 grammes, about 1 lb. One of my own grew from 11 to 13.2 cm. shell-length, and 8.3 to 10.6 cm. in width within eight years, but this was one of the specimens which, living in a greenhouse, {352}did not hibernate. This European pond-tortoise is now restricted to Southern and Middle Europe, extending eastwards towards St. Petersburg and into Asia Minor, southwards into Algeria. Formerly it had a much wider range, having been found in post-glacial deposits in Southern Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and in East Anglia. Specimens have been found in the peat of the fens of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, contemporary with bones of the Beaver, Roe-deer, and Pelican. The same applies to North Germany, where its gradual disappearance from the western and central parts is obvious. Except in Central France it is now practically unknown to the west of the Elbe river. The country between the Elbe and Oder is now debatable ground, _Emys_ being exceedingly rare. Some fifty years ago this seems to have been different, to judge from the fact that farmers were rather fond of keeping a tortoise in the water-troughs of the cattle to keep the water free from worms and other impurities. Hence arose a silly superstitious custom. It was considered equally conducive to the health of the pigs to keep a tortoise in the foul tub into which all the dish-water and kitchen-refuse–as potato-peels, sour milk, etc.,–were collected before the mess was given to the pigs. A specimen is still occasionally caught in the Havel and Spree rivers. I myself have heard of one or two in the backwaters of the Oder near Frankfurt, but they are vanishing, and it is difficult to say exactly why. The universal lowering of the water-level owing to better drainage cannot quite account for it, since there are thousands of suitable ponds, swamps, and backwaters left. In Poland and in Eastern Prussia the tortoise is still common. This creature lives on a strictly animal diet. Worms, insects, frogs, fishes form its main sustenance. Fishes are regularly stalked. The tortoise watches its opportunity, slowly it half crawls, half swims along the bottom, rises imperceptibly by a few gentle movements of the widely spread-out webbed feet, then opens its sharp cutting jaws wide, and makes a grab at the belly of the fish. Frogs are most easily stalked when they sit upon a floating leaf. The tortoise rises from below, and often waits with the nostrils and eyes just above the water and close to the frog. After a while it sinks, and rises again, this time actually touching the toes of the non-suspecting frog, smelling at them and deliberately biting with a sideward turn of the head. {353}[Illustration: FIG. 79.–_Emys orbicularis_, European Pond-tortoise (left), and _Clemmys leprosa_, Iberian Water-tortoise (right). × ½.]