DERMATOCHELYS CORIACEA. 55 



DERMATOCHELYS, Blainv. 



Carapace subcordlform, covered with a coriaceous skin like the remainder 

 of the animal. — Herbivorous. 



DERMATOCHELYS CORIACEA. 



Testudo coriacea, L. Syst. Nat. i. p. 350. 



Spliargis mercurialis, Merr. Tent. p. 19. Schleg. Faun. Japon., Rept. p. 6. tab. 1. 



coriacea, Gray, Syn. Rept. p. 51. Dum. iSf Bibr. Erpet. yen. ii. p. 560. pi. 24. fig. 2. Tickell, 



' Journ. As. Soc. Beiig. 1862, p. 367, c. fig. 



Shell above with seven longitudinal ridges, separated from one another by grooves. Skin 

 smooth in adult specimens, tubercular in young ones. 



This Turtle, although scarce, appears to be spread throughout almost all the seas of the 

 tropical and temperate regions, having been found in the Mediterranean, on the south coast 

 of England, in the West Indies, at the Cape of Good Hope, on tlie coasts of the United 

 States, in Chili, and in Japan. Its occurrence lately in India has been recorded by Major 

 S. R. Tickell, who gives a very interesting account of the capture of a female specimen on 

 the coast of Tenasserim, from which we extract the following notes : — 



" She was captured February 1st, 1862, near the mouth of the Ye 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 6 feet 2^ inches. 



" The strength, aided of course by the enormous weight, of tlie 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 specimen under review was sufiiciently aged to have lost all traces of plates or shields on the head, 

 which was tolerably smooth, and apparently covered with a plain, tight, coriaceous skin, loosened into folds 

 and wrinkles on the throat and neck — like that on the trunk of an elephant. The paddles were covered 

 with similar hard, stretched leather. The fore paddles had, on the extremities of the middle and little 

 fingers, a triangidar flat naU, the spaces answering to the ends of the index and ring fingers being marked 

 with a curvilinear sharpish edge of the skin. On the hind paddle, the innermost or little toe will be found 

 strongly relieved from the contour of the rest of the foot, and covered by a broad triangular scale or nail. 



" The eggs were spherical, of 1 f " diameter, and are as palatable as those of the river Tortoise are 

 nauseous. Besides those the animal had laid in the sand, tliei'e must have been upwards of a thousand in 

 her ovaria, in all stages of matimty. The flesh was dark and coarse, and very few of the crowds of 

 Burmans assembled at Ye to see the animal would eat any of it. 



" It is of exceedingly rare occurrence. The few that have been seen were on the shores of the numerous 

 islands along the coast. This was the first one ever found on the mainland." 



