A. JE. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 



693 



though it seems that formerly they were not uncommonly found of 

 similar sizes. Therefore, it is not improbable that the huge turtles 

 mentioned as found breeding at the Bermudas by the early writers, 

 quoted above, were really green turtles that had lived here unmo- 

 lested to a great age and large size. 



In proof of this, Lieut. Nelson records the finding of huge skeletons 

 of sea turtles, nine feet long and seven feet broad, in the sand dunes. 

 (See under Geology, Part IV.) These may well have been the bones 

 of large green turtles, killed by the early settlers for food. 



Figure 47.— Green Turtle. 



Figure 48. — Hawksbili. 



In the West Indies adult turtles, not of the largest size, will lay 

 three or four lots of eggs, or sometimes five, at intervals of 14 or 15 

 days, with about 75 to 200 eggs in each lot, making a new nest each 

 time. The total number might, therefore, be 500 to 1000. Thus 

 the number of eggs, mentioned by Strachy as contained in those 

 large turtles, may not have been exaggerated. The eggs hatch in 

 six to eight weeks, according to the temperature, and the young take 

 to the water at once.* 



The Green Turtle is peculiar in feeding chiefly on a vegetable 

 diet, while the others are partly or mainly carnivorous. This species 

 is particularly fond of the roots and crown or base of the " turtle 

 grass" or eel-grass (Zostera marina), which grows in shallow water; 

 but it will also eat various succulent sea-weeds,f and does not object 

 to a certain amount of animal food. In confinement they will eat 

 fish of any kind. 



They have now become rather shy and wary, so that their cap- 

 ture, even in large seines, requires considerable skill and patience. 



* The very young turtles are devoui'ed in large numbers by various birds and 

 fishes, and doubtless also by the hawksbili and other sea-turtles. Sharks are 

 fond of them, even when eight to twelve inches in diameter. 



f Mr. True mentions that the stomach of one taken at Noank, Conn., in 1874 

 was full of Irish Moss (Chondrus crispus), a very succulent and nutritious sea- 

 weed, abundant on the rocks of the New England coast, just below ordinary 

 low tides. This would make an excellent food for fattening these turtles in 

 confinement. 



