Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/537

Rh expressed his doubts as to whether the specimens collected in these various parts of the world really belonged to one species. The same authority considered, from a critical examination of the localities where the species is found, and from its frequence in some parts of the Atlantic Ocean, whilst it is only met with accidentally in others, that "it is plain that the West Indies is its home, and that it is not indigenous to Europe, since in three centuries it has not been observed more than nine times in Europe, whereas it is seen at all seasons about the Bahamas."

An interesting account is given by Major S.R. Tickell, which has been more than once reproduced, of a female captured on the coast of Tenasserim. "She was captured Feb. 1st, 1862, near the mouth of the Té River, on the sandy beach of which she had deposited about a hundred eggs, when she was surprised by a number of Burmese fishermen who had been lying in ambush near the spot (a favourite resort of the Common Turtle, Chelonia virgata), and, after a desperate struggle, was secured. Her entire length was six feet two and a half inches.

"The strength, aided of course by the enormous weight of the animal, was such that she dragged six men, endeavouring to stop her, down the slope of the beach, almost into the sea, when she was overpowered by increased numbers, lashed to some strong poles, and brought into the village by ten to twelve men at a time.

"The eggs were spherical, of 1⅝ in. diameter, and were as palatable as those of the River Tortoise are nauseous. Besides those the animal had laid in the sand, there must have been upwards of a thousand in her ovaria, in all stages of maturity. The flesh was dark and coarse, and very few of the crowds of Burmans assembled at Té to see the animal would eat any of it."

According to the late Prof. Duncan, they make a roaring noise under certain circumstances, and hence have to be included in the genus Sphargis. Aflalo, describing a pair of these Leathery