42 CHELONIA IMBRICATA. 



and are also furnished with two elongated nails. The tail is short, conical and 

 covered with soft flexible plates, disposed without order. 



Colour. The plates of the head are chestnut-brown in the centre, sometimes 

 tinged with red, with their margins of lighter colour; the jaws are yellowish, with 

 occasional bars of brown; the neck above is dusky; the chin and throat yellow; 

 the plates of the shell are fawn colour, more or less bright, and marked with 

 radiating or waving bars or spots or blotches, of variable size, and beautiful 

 bright chestnut-brown; the sternum is yellow; the extremities and tail are coloured 

 above like the shell, but more dusky, and are dingy-yellow below. 



Dimensions. The dimensions of the animal here described were as follows: 

 length of head, 5 inches; length of shell, 18 inches; length of sternum, IH inches. 

 They sometimes, however, approach the Green Turtle in size. 



Habits. In their native condition I am not aware that the habits of this 

 animal differ from those of the Chelonia caretta; they seek similar localities and 

 the same food, but in confinement they seem much more ferocious: I have 

 observed them bite severely the Chelonia mydas, when swimming together in the 

 same reservoir, though the other gave no offence; nor did he offer retaliation for 

 the injury received. 



Geographical Distribution. The Chelonia imbricata is found only at the 

 extreme southern points of the United States; once only I knew a fine specimen 

 driven to the shores of Carolina during an equinoxial storm. 



General Remarks. This animal is only esteemed for the substance it affords 

 called "Tortoise-shell," which is but the lamina or plates that cover the bony 

 shell. Other species of Chelonia have a similar covering, but in no other are 

 these plates sufficiently thick to be of any value in the arts. These lamina are 

 obtained by exposing the convex portion of the shell to a certain degree of heat, 

 which destroys the connection between the plate and the shell; it is now recurved 



