WATERS OF WESTERN INDIA. 171 



active. If turned on their backs, they can right themselves like the 

 Terrapins and Mud-turtles, and unlike their own parents. They are 

 apparently omnivorous. At the time Dr. Gun t her wrote, this 

 species was supposed to live entirely on algw ; but if it could not do 

 without these, there would be very few Green Turtles on this coast. 

 The breeding goes on all the year round, chiefly, perhaps, in the 

 autumn and beginning of the cold-weather. The eggs are just toler- 

 able fried, or in an omelette. 



The flesh resembles that of the "Alderman's Turtle" (Chelonia 

 viridis)j and is, of course, used like it for soup and cutlets ; but about 

 the best thing to make of it is a kabob curry. It is said occasionally 

 to be poisonous. If this is really the case, the cause is probably in 

 some disease of the animal, and not in any natural changes ; for 

 the most likely of these, exhaustion after laying eggs, certainly does 

 not make the flesh of this Turtle unwholesome. The females, however, 

 are naturally thin and poor at this period ; and the best meat is that 

 of Turtles caught at sea, barren or not, far advanced in pregnancy, or 

 males. The latter, I think, do not come ashore at all. 



Our second Sea -turtle is the so-called Indian Logger -head {Oawana 

 olivacea). It is not logger-headed nor olive-coloured at all, but has 

 rather a fine profile — for a Turtle, and a good complexion, showing 

 regular " tortoise-shell" colourings when wet. It seldom reaches 3 

 feet long ; it is less common than the Green Turtle ; and I have never 

 got the eggs. It is reputed carnivorous ; and by some its flesh is 

 thought inferior to that of the Green Turtle ; but I cannot myself 

 make out any difference in taste. 



Two other Turtles maybe found here ; but 1 do not think that they 

 are yet reported. The first is the Indian Hawk-bill or Tortoise-shell 

 Turtle, which alone has shields thick enough to make combs of. 

 These overlap each other like the scales of a fish, whence the name 

 (Caretta squamata). The other is, the giant of the tribe, the Leather- 

 backed Turtle {Bermatocliebjs coriacea\ which has no tortoise-shell at 

 all, but a thick skin laid over a ridge-and -furrow arrangement of 

 bony plates. 



The only Crocodile here is C. Palustris. I know that some 

 specimens from Tulsi Lake have been exhibited at jthe Society's 

 Rooms as C. porosus ; but they all had the unmistakeable shields on 

 the nape of the neck characteristic of the former species. 



This is only locally abundant ; most so in the Kal River in the 

 Mangaum Taluka of Kolaba. The fact is the fresh -waters and their 



