THE PINE LIZARD AND ITS ALLIES 



363 



procure food. A string is attached to one of these sucking 

 fishes, which is then liberated in the vicinity of turtles. It 

 soon attaches itself to the under surface of the shell, holding 

 on so tenaciously that the turtle can be drawn gently to the 

 surface. The method was noticed by Columbus or one of 



Fig. 188. Photograph of a box tortoise 



his companions, and was described in 1671, in the follow- 

 ing quotation from Ogilby's America : 



Somewhat further he [Columbus] saw very strange Fishes, 

 especially of the Guaican, not unlike an Eel, but with an extra- 

 ordinary great Head, over which hangs a skin like a bag. This 

 Fish is the Natives Fisher, for having a Line or handsom Cord 

 fastned about him, so soon as a Turtel, or any other of his Prey, 

 comes above Water, they give him Line ; whereupon the Guaican, 

 like an Arrow out of a Bowe, shoots toward the other Fish, and then 

 gathering the Mouth of the Bag on his Head like a Purse-net, holds 

 them so fast that he lets not loose till hal'd up out of the Water. 



A common species of tortoise in the eastern United States 

 is the box tortoise (Terr ape' 'ne, Fig. 188), which lives en- 



