Ihis is repeated with greater or less rapidity, until a considerable portion has
been taken, and the food is at once swallowed without any attempt at mastication.
As the oesophagus is large, and very distensible, large pieces of the
stalk are often swallowed whole, without inconvenience. A specimen of
T. areolata, which I kept some years since, and which was so tame as to eat
readily from my hand, would swallow in this way a piece of the stalk of cabbage,
or a small piece of hard pear, nearly as long as its body, without biting
it sufficiently to separate it into smaller pieces, or eyen to render it flexible;
so that the posterior part of the stomach must have been forced backwards by
it almost to the extent of the abdominal cavity, and; this without producing
the slightest apparent disturbance to the animal.
From these exclusively vegetable feeders we pass towards the fresh-waler
tortoises, which live on animal substances only, by the intermediate form of
the Box Tortoises, which live on food of a mixed kind; of these, the common
American species Terrapene clausa devours not only various vegetable matters,
but snails, worms, and other small animals. The European species of .the
same genus, T. europcea, approaches more nearly in form and habit to the
fresh-water tortoises, and may in fact be considered as the common freshwater
tortoise of Europe. Its common food consists of fish and other aquatic
animals; and as it always leaves the air-bag of the fish whieh it eats, the number
of these which float on the surface of a lake or pond is considered as an
indication of the comparative number of tortoises which, inhabit it. Yet even
this species, so carnivorous in its.general habits, is not necessarily confined to
animal food; for we are told that in some parts of Europe, where it is eaten
by the inhabitants, it is not only fe d lout fattened upon grains.;
Such, however, is far from being the case with the more typical fresh-water
species, including the remainder of the family Emydidce, and the, whole of the
Chelydidm and Trionychidce. These live exclusively on animal, food of different
kinds, such as fish, batrachian animals, the young of water birds, aquatic
mollusca and insects.,: They are generally;furnished with long sharp claws, by
which they tear their prey to pieces. These, are particularly long in some of
the American species, as Emys irrigata, ornata, decussata, in whieh they not
unfrequently attain an inch or more in length. When the Emydes seize their
prey, if it be motionless or nearly so, they usually creep towards it with great
caution, stretching the neck slowly till the mouth is within a short distance,
and then seizing it by a sudden snapping motion of the jaws. I had an
individual specimen of Emys decussata in my possession, which, whenever it
was about to take food, stretched out the two anterior feet, one on each side
of the head, and with the palms outwards. These were held in the same
position for some moments, but agitated with a vibratory motion, after which
the head was suddenly darted forwards on the prey,: This curious manoeuvre
was repeated as often as a morsel of meat was held near him; but I never observed
a similar habit in any other tortoise of this or any other species. In
pursuing their prey however, when swimming, a greater degree of rapidity is
of course necessary. I have seen a common fresh-water tortoise, Emys lutaria,
pursue, a frog in a large vessel of -water with considerable rapidity, seize it by
the belly, and tear it to pieces in a very' short space of time. These animals
may; be very easily kept during the summer, in a small pond or reservoir of
water, by feeding them with pieces of raw lean beef, if living frogs, fish, or
worms cannot be . readily obtained... They will also feed on the intestines of
fowls, and on almost any other animal substance. .
The force and tenacity with which the carnivorous Testudinata seize and
hold their, food’is very great. They may .in fact, in some cases, be /easily
caught by allowing them to seize a piece of meat attached /to a string, and
then drawing it quickly out of the water.
The habits of Chelydra serpentina are those of extreme voracity. Endowed
with great strength, and astonishing rapidity and force in the movements of
its limbs and neck, it is enabled to pursue; seize and tear in pieces, fish of no
inconsiderable size, and the young of aquatic birds which swim on the surface
of the lakes in which it abounds.. ,
It is said also to conceal itself in the mud, by which means it escapes the
observation of the animals which it makes its preyj, till they come within its
reach.. In this circumstance, as well as in the sudden snapping motion by
which the species just mentioned seizes its food, the whole of the Trionychidce
probably resemble it. The flatness of the body and the soft flexible structure
of its broad coriaceous margin peculiarly adapt them for concealment in the