CHELONIA 



245 



skin, it is repulsive enough to most persons, but is especially annoying 

 to the fisherman, since it devours with impunity his bait so long 

 as he feeds it, and can seldom be caught on the hook because 

 of its hard and bony mouth, in which only by good luck will the 

 hook catch. And the luckless string of fish that the fisherman 

 leaves in the water may be almost completely devoured in a few 

 hours by these fiercely predaceous feeders. However, if so annoy- 



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Fig. 129. — Trionyx, river turtle. (By permission of the New York Zoological 

 Society.) 



ing while seeking for better game, it in part makes up for the 

 annoyance it causes by furnishing in its own body a not unpalatable 

 food for those who like to eat reptiles. 



The river turtles will be readily recognized from the accompany- 

 ing illustration (Fig. 129). They are very flat, covered with a 

 soft, smooth skin, with a long, sinuous neck and a small, snake-like 

 and vicious-looking head which has a protuberant snout with the 

 external nasal orifice at its end. Their feet are webbed and some- 

 what paddle-like, but always with three stout claws — whence 



