TORTOISE, Testudo, a genus of chelonian reptiles, which once included the whole order, but is now much restricted. The popular name tortoise is never given to ties marine chelonians, which are called turtles (q.v.), and although it is sometimes given —generally with a prefix,:as marsh tortoise, river tortoise, fresh-water tortoise—to the kinds which inhabit fresh water (see EHYS and TERRAPIN), yet. when used by itself. it is commonly the designation of what arc distinctively called land tortoises, which belong to the genus testudo as now restricted, and the genera most nearly allied to it. In testudo the carapace is of a single piece, bulged. and soldered by the greater portion of its lateral edges to the plastron (see CIIELONIA); the legs are very short; the toes are very short, and united to the nails, which are thick and conked, five on the fore feet, and four on the hind-feet. The species are numerous and widely distributed, inhabitants of the warmer temperate and of tropical countries. They all feed on vege• table food. None of them are found in Britain, hut seventh in the countries around the Mediterranean. The most common of these is the GREEK TORTOISE (7: Gram), which attains a length of 12 in., and has a broad and equally bulged carapace; the scales of which are granulated in the center, striated on the margins, and spotted or marbled with black and yellow. This is the species of an individual of which a most interesting account is given by White in his Natural HiAtory of Selborne. It lives. to a very great age, 100 years or more, as probably do all the other species, and spends the winter in a dormant state, as do all those which are not inhabitants of tropical climates; selecting for itself a place of hibernation when cold weather begins to come on, or preparing it by scooping a hole in the earth. During the heat of summer it feeds voraciously; but in colder weather, both before and after its hiber nation, it eats little. The love-season, which is in the beginning of summer, is one of great activity, and tortoises express their amorous desires by striking their shells.
against those of their mates. The Greek tortoise is use:] for food in some parts ttic B. of Europe. The flesh of all species of tortoise appears to he good for food, and the eggs of all arc regarded as delicacies. A very large species is the Indian tor toise (T. Indica), if several species are not confounded under that. name. It has been found on the coast of Coromandel, 4.1 ft. in length, its bulge being about 14 inches. It is particularly abundant in the Galapago islands, and has even been supposed by Darwin to be originally a native of them, and to have been diffused from them by the buccaneers over other tropical regions. It is known that the buccaneers often carried away tortoises alive from the Galapagos, but this fact does not seem probably to account for the abundance of the species in other places. The Galapago tortoise is often 200 lbs. in weight. Its flesh is of excellent quality, as are also its eggs. It forms tracks from the arid districts near the shore to the high districts of the islands, where there are springs, for the purpose of drinking; and these tracks, which are broad and well beaten, are traversed apparently at irregular intervals, the animal swallowing a very large quantity of water at a time, so that its bladder is greatly dis tended, and the water contained in the bladder is at first almost pure, and is gradu ally absorbed. The numbers of tortoises in some tropical and subtropical countries are very great. Prof. E. Forbes speaks with admiration of the numbers of T. GraCa and T. inargznata straying about the plains of Lycia, and browsiug on the fresh herbage in spring. Darwin describes the tortoises of the Galapagos as very numerous; and Leguat, in his account of the French Protestant expedition to the island of Rodriguez, in the beginning of last century, declares that the tortoises often came out together in such numbers to feed, that a man might have walked for a considerable distance on their backs as on a pavemeut.
Tortoises exhibit very little intelligence; they are, however, capable of recognizing the hand that feeds them.