This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 Excerpt: ...Tortoises are also exclusively vegetable feeders; other Chelonia either live on plant food, together with Worms, Insects, and the like, or are completely carnivorous. All are oviparous, the number of eggs laid being usually very great (as many as 240 in the Sea-Turtles); these they lay in a burrow carefully prepared in ...
Read More
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 Excerpt: ...Tortoises are also exclusively vegetable feeders; other Chelonia either live on plant food, together with Worms, Insects, and the like, or are completely carnivorous. All are oviparous, the number of eggs laid being usually very great (as many as 240 in the Sea-Turtles); these they lay in a burrow carefully prepared in the earth, or, in the case of the Sea-Turtles, in the sand of the sea-shore, and, having covered them over, leave them to hatch. The Crocodiles and Alligators, the largest of living Reptiles, are in the main aquatic in their habits, inhabiting rivers and, in the case of some species, estuaries. Endowed with great muscular power, these Reptiles are able, by the movements of the powerful tail and the webbed hind-feet, to dart through the water with lightning-like rapidity. By lying in wait motionless, sometimes completely submerged with the exception of the extremity of the snout bearing the nostrils, they are often able by the suddenness and swiftness of their onset to seize the most watchful and timid animals. In the majority of cases the greater part, and in some the whole, of their food consists of Fishes; but all the larger and more VOL. II z powerful kinds prey also on Birds and Mammals of all kinds, which they seize unawares when they come down to drink or attempt to cross the stream. On land their movements are comparatively slow and awkward, and they are correspondingly more timid and helpless. The Crocodilia, as already mentioned, are all oviparous, and the eggs, as large in some species as those of a Goose, are brought forth in great numbers (sometimes 100 or more) and either buried in the sand, or deposited in rough nests. Geographical Distribution.--The order Lacertilia, the most numerous of the orders of Reptiles living at the pre...
Read Less
