THE HAWK'S-BILL TURTLE. 175 



crustacean, or to appropriate molluscs as their chief 

 articles of food. 



At the breeding season these reptiles seek a 

 retired, sandy beach after sunset, and there, above 

 high-water mark, a hollow is excavated to serve as a 

 nest, in which during the night about a hundred 

 eggs are deposited. It is said that the female 

 repeats this operation three times in the same 

 season, at intervals of two or three weeks. The 

 eggs are lightly covered with sand, and left to be 

 hatched by the heat of the sun, which operation is 

 accomplished in two or three weeks. The parents 

 thenceforth take no regard of their progeny. As 

 soon as the young turtles leave the egg, they seek 

 the sea, some of them falling a victim to rapacious 

 birds during the brief journey they have to per- 

 form, and many others serving as a delicate morsel 

 for predatory fish as soon as they reach the water. 

 Thus the balance of life is maintained, or the surface 

 of the sea might soon be covered with floating turtles. 



The eggs of the turtles are more or less spherical, 

 and are much prized as articles of food. A native 

 Brazilian will eat twenty or thirty for breakfast, as 

 they are about the size of those of a " Bantam " 

 hen. By the river Amazon a large number of turtle- 

 eggs are secured every year for the sake of turtle- 

 oil. The stratum of eggs in the sand is ascertained 

 by a pole thrust in, and the harvest of eggs is 



