feeling of hatred against them, an instinctive and unappeasable enmity, is perfectly natural, and has grown out of religious superstitions. Fear, disgust and aversion are man's experiences at the sight of a snake, and there is at once a disposition to seize a stick or stone, or to make use of his heel, if well protected, to deal a fatal stroke. War to the death seems to be the cry between the highest of the mammals and the serpent tribe. It is not at all surprising, therefore, that the snake, seeing a human enemy, should either glide hastily off into the bushes, or, being thwarted, should coil itself up and hiss or throw itself forward in attack. Man would do well to protect the snakes about his domains, and treat them as friends, for they do him invaluable service in the destruction of vermin that make havoc with his crops. Ants, bees, spiders, and many fishes, animals that are lower down in the scale than the snake, it is claimed, show far more forecast, ingenuity and architectural ability than it, but asserters of such an opinion forget that the snake is never studied under favorable conditions. Long ages of persecution have made him fearful of man, from whose presence he flees as from a pestilence or scourge, and there is consequently no chance to learn his better nature. Even man, until recently, has shown no inclination to make his acquaintance, being controlled by a dread which it appears well nigh impossible to overcome. Where the animal has been made to partake of the milk of human kindness, and has learned to regard man as a friend and not an enemy, he has shown remarkable susceptibility to culture and enlightenment. Let it be hoped that a modicum of the wisdom which has been attributed to him from the earliest of times, when he was made the object of homage and the insignia of the physician, shall at least be found to remain to the credit of science and truth. HOUSE-BEARING REPTILES. TUR URTLES are four-legged reptiles, with short, stout, oval-shaped bodies encased in bony boxes, from which they are able to protrude their heads, legs and tails, and into which they can withdraw them, at pleasure. Considerable diversity exists in the size and shape of the boxlike covering in the different species. The Box Tortoise can retire into his shell or house, closing the under part or plastron into a groove of the upper edge of the carapace, as the upper part is called, thus constituting for his security an impregnable retreat. There are species only partly enclosed by the shell, which cannot bring their heads and feet under cover. With his house upon his back the turtle wanders about as the snail does, and against his enemies can close its doors and be emphatically not at home. He has acute sight and hearing, but is devoid of teeth, the jaws being, like those of birds, simply cased in horn. Turtles are not altogether silent creatures, for many of them are capable of producing very loud sounds. Their eggs, which have a parchment-like covering, are buried in earth or sand, and left to themselves to hatch. The sea-turtle, our largest variety, is sometimes found to lay as many as two hundred eggs in a heap, and in tropical regions has been known to attain a weight of a thousand pounds. Even on the Atlantic Coast of the United States individuals, weighing upwards of eight hundred pounds, have not infrequently been captured. In the four species of sea-turtles, the feet are flat and paddle-shaped, and the shell of one rather leathery than horny. Some of these marine forms are carnivorous, living on fish, mollusks and crustaceans, while others are strictly vegetarians, subsisting only on roots and the various sea-weeds. The flesh of some is rich and delicious, and a favorite and costly article of food, but of others it is coarse and illflavored, and necessarily not edible. The eggs, however, are always sweet, good and wholesome food. Valuable articles of commerce, such as boxes, cases, knife-handles, jewelry and other delicate ornaments, are made from the shell, for it is susceptible of a very high polish, which brings out with surprising clearness its rich brown and golden shades and markings. Next to the sea-living turtles, come the fresh-water species, which eat both animal and vegetable foods. They enjoy much better than aught else a bed of soft mud, their heads lifted above the surface of the stagnant water, their long necks moving snake-like as they gulp in mouthful after mouthful of air. They are generally gregarious in habits, large numbers often being found huddled together in the sun on logs or banks, close to the water, into which they quickly slide upon the first intimation of danger. Timid as they are, yet they will snap and bite most furiously when taken in the hand. Salt- and fresh-water terrapins are varieties of turtle, although some scientists restrict the latter term to marine animals that do not hibernate, and that cannot draw their head and feet inside the shell. The tortoise never goes to sea they say, can draw himself within his shell, although the Box Tortoise only can close the shell fast when thus withdrawn, and finally, that the tortoise hibernates. Some of the best and latest writers on the subject call all these animals turtles, applying the name tortoise only to the familiar Box Tortoise of the wood. Awkward as turtles appear in their box-like covering, yet they can walk rapidly on land, are climbers of some note, and all are able to swim. The head, neck, and legs of a turtle are of a bronze, blackish green, or deep-brown color, and the shells are beautifully marked, glossy, ridged, or carved, and made up of closely-united, many-sided plates, arranged upon a thickened, lighter-colored and apparently uniform bony plate, which is capable of being separated into many independent pieces. The shell, or epidermic covering, is not brittle and lime-like, as the shells of all mollusks are, but is of the nature of horn. In general the plastron is of a lighter color than the carapace, being light-brown, yellow or cream, with yellowish lines dividing the plates, and with bordering bands of red, yellow and purple. The upper plate is usually of a very dark color, marked and lined with darker and lighter tints, and often displaying a bevelled yellow edge. Chrysemys picta, the Painted Turtle, receives his name from the beauty of his many-colored shell, while the Spotted Turtle, Nanemys guttatus, which is often called the Wood Turtle, is distinguished by the round yellow spots that are regularly distributed over his dark-colored carapace. But of all our turtles none is so well known or so interesting in his ways as the Common Box Tortoise-Cistudo clausa. He affects dry woods, and dislikes the water, and is a long-lived creature, some individuals having been known to live more than a hundred years. Box Tortoises in confinement have been found to eat meat, insects and bread and milk from the hand, but if berries were put into their mouths they wiped them out in a very funny manner with their front feet, which they used after the fashion of a hand. When foraging in the woods, especially during the rainy season, at which time manifold varieties of fungi prevail, they make their meals largely upon these plants. We have seen a huge toadstool that had been gnawed off so evenly, the central pillar only being left intact, that appeared as though it had been cut away by a knife. This had been the work of the Box Tortoise, for on looking around we soon descried, moving leisurely over the leaf-strewn earth, the creature |