Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/92

 80 TURTLE domen ; the skeleton is light, the paddles large and free, and everything seems arranged for rapid and long continued voyages. The green turtle (chelonia midas, Schw.), sometimes at- taining a length of 5 or 6 ft. and a weight of 5 or 6 cwt., received its name from the color of the delicate fat which enriches the soup and Green Turtle (Chelonia midas). other dishes of a course of turtle. It has a short and rounded snout, and jaws acting like straight-edged shears cutting from behind for- ward, the upper slightly notched, the lower with a deeply serrated margin and a hook in front ; shell smooth, with 13 plates, 5 vertebral and 8 lateral, not imbricated, slightly notched and serrated behind, and with 25 marginal plates ; anterior limbs rounded at shoulder, cov- ered with a tough skin and a few small plates; forearm and hand with large plates on the an- terior border, smaller ones elsewhere, and an extensile fold of skin along the posterior mar- gin ; hind limbs short and flattened, covered with small plates and a larger fold of skin on the margin ; a single nail to each limb ; the shell is light brown, with darker lines and blotches, and sometimes with a greenish tinge ; below pale yellowish white. It is abundant in the tropical waters of America, whence great numbers are carried alive to the northern states and to Europe ; the West Indies are its headquarters, whence it wanders to the gulf of Mexico and the coasts of Guiana and Brazil ; it is rarely found above lat. 34 N. on the At- lantic coast, and never on the shores of Europe; the Tortugas islands are a favorite resort. It browses on the turtle grass (zostera marina), eating the succulent part nearest the root, the rest rising to the surface and disclosing the feeding grounds to the practised eye ; in con- finement it will eat and grow fat upon purslane (portulacca oleracea) ; numbers are kept for a long time in pens or crawls filled at every tide. It is often seen many hundred miles from land, and is easily taken when asleep on the surface ; its capture gives employment to many and food to thousands in the West Indies. (For an ac- count of other methods of taking them, and of the manner in which the eggs are laid see Audubon's " Ornithological Biography " vol ii., pp. 370-76, Boston, 1835.) During the actual laying of the eggs nothing can disturb their labors ; they are hatched in eight or nine weeks. The flesh is exceedingly delicate, and wholesome in moderate quantities ; the eggs of this and of all the species are also considered a delicacy. In the young the carapace is rela- tively narrrower, and the colors of the adults vary much. As in all the species, the eggs are dropped one by one, and disposed in regular layers, during a period of about 20 minutes; they are round, 2 to 3 in. in diameter, with the external membrane flexible, very white, and containing a considerable quantity of cal- careous matter ; the shell of the young is soft, and affords but little protection. The logger- head turtle (thalassochefys caouana, Fitz.) has the body very wide across the shoulders ; the head very large and flat, with wide mouth, the upper jaw nearly straight, and the lower hooked; shell smooth, with a keel along the median line, and a crescentic notch in the pos- terior border; the plates are thin and flexible, 5 vertebral and 10 lateral, not imbricated, and the marginal plates 25; each limb has two nails, corresponding to the first two fingers; the color above is light brown, sometimes with an olive tinge and often bordered with dirty yellowish ; and the shield, as in the other tur- tles, is frequently more or less covered with barnacles, serpulte, and other parasites. It has an extensive range on the American coast of the Atlantic, from Virginia to Brazil, and probably on the shores of Europe and in the Mediterra- nean ; it is more common than the green tur- tle, and grows to 15 or 16 cwt. ; it is voracious, feeding principally on mollusks, being able to crush with its powerful jaws the strongest shells; the flesh of the young is sometimes eaten, but that of the old is rank and tough ; the scales are of little value, and even the eggs have a musky flavor ; it is taken only for the considerable quantity of excellent burning oil which it furnishes. The hawk's bill or imbri- cated turtle (eretmochelys imbricata, Fitz.) has a low and rather wide head, a long and narrow- mouth, the upper jaw prolonged and hooked Hawk's Bill Turtle (Eretmochelys Imbricata). like the beak of a hawk, the lower jaw with a smaller hook, and both with serrated margins ; the shell is slightly keeled, flattened and ser- rated behind, with five vertebral and eight lateral plates strongly imbricated or overlap- ping like the scales of a fish ; the plastron has