The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-01-20

10 liOt u1UCi vi u tHthkcf. UlWt ultu
something TO eat. and let him alone
and nc will get along almost any
where, And If disturbed too much he
can shut himself upin his shell like q
''jack-in-a-box' and laugh at his tor
mentors. stssse ls,s asara lasa
And, by the way. AZ most people
know the turtle mainly by the outside,
and as young and old FOLKS generally
are interested in this comicai creature,
some short account Of what there is in
side the turtles box may not be with
out interest. III NST E
The turtie--or the tortoise, Is give
the little crawler its proper, name-is
not the only "animal IN q box. Oys-
tiers, CLANS, crabs and many other
creatures are boxed-up animals. But
they al differ greatly froni the tortoise,
which is, in fact, q, very distant cousin
OF ourselves; that is TO say, it has a
backbone and ribs, as we have. The
lower orders Of animals have no inside.
bones; all their hard parts are outside
their bodies, 1t ia the popularity Of the
vertebrate (or baokbone) animals to
have their hard parts inside. while their
outside is of soft flesh. or is covered
with scales. as in the fishes and rep-
tiles. aiFf ~
But the turtle is peculiar in that it
has bones both inside and outside. In
this peculiar animal the bones come
through the flesh. and sDread over the
BODY outside. The turtles shell is
made up of it's backbone and ribs,
which are spread ont broad and All
over its back. the ribs joinine at their
edges. !, This tsnt Of bone 4 coyered
with thin. almost Transparent. heat
sifully tinted coatinp. which il the tor.
toise she'll from which such pretty
combs. knife-handlcs. and like orna.
mental objects arc made.
The lower shell ia made in the same
manner. Here thebreast.bones comes
out, and suIessds into q broad. fiat she'll.
Thus the tortoise il ACTUALLY shut I'm
in a box made of it's own bones. This
is usually Joined together above and
below, exccpt where the head. tail and
legs como out. And these can be with
drawn at will. and the shell closed by
strong muscles, until the creature be-
comes Ike an old-timc KNIGHT sbut nm
in his iron box Of armor.
The head is also covered with a coat
ing of horny plates. and the EDGES of
these plates At the laws do dt,ty as
teeth. since tho tortoise has none of
these useful organs. These horny jaws
are often saw-tocthcd. SO that they cut
nm food very well
Our iittIciand tortoise - Cistueo Caro-.
INN. to pire it it's scientific name
is bv no means confined 60 Carolina.
but may he fov,,d everywhere along
the Alantic coast frpm Maine to F}ori.
da. IN is very abundant in the nine
forests of the South. and is familiar to
almost everybody aYerywherc thronah.
out the region nalhed.
The shell of tho box tortoise is abou,
six and a half inches long by fonr and
a half wide. n i more rounded thar
is usual with turtles. and has a remark.
able variety of colors and MARKINGS,
It's most common colors are vellowish.
brown and bright yellow. but these art
so yariously arranged that Il is nearl,
or quite impossible 10 find two tortoise.
alike.
In its wild state il feeds on insects
and probably ON some species of plants
but when confined il very quickly make,
itself ut home. and VIM eat nearl,
everything offSredsi FL such as bread
notatoes. annles. and other civilizef
fare. =
One thing remarkable about it is it
wonderful length of life. We are no
surprised TO hear that the huge ele
plant can live for two hunded years
there ia st,t6 enough in the great beas
to keer, it going for centuries. Yet i
is hard to Conceive that little crawl
inp tortoise can live As long as an Gle