30 TESTUDINATA. — CHELONIADiE. 



or sea-grass, which grows in immense submerged 

 fields at the bottom of the tropical seas. It has 

 been stated that some species will crawl up the 

 shores of desert islands during the night, and 

 clamber up the cliffs of lone and isolated rocks 

 far out at sea, for the purpose of browsing on 

 certain favourite plants. But some species, such 

 as the great Loggerhead Turtle {Chelone caouana), 

 which diffuse a rank odour, feed largely on cut- 

 tles, and other mollusca^ their powerful jaws 

 crushing even such stony shells as those of the 

 great Stromhi and Cassides, as a man would crack 

 a nut. The robust form of the jaws in these 

 animals, their trenchant and frequently notched 

 or toothed edges, the mode in which the lower 

 mandible shuts into the upper, and the great 

 strength of the muscles which move them, ma- 

 nifested in the force with which they snap to- 

 gether, — while they remind the beholder of the 

 beak of a bird of prey, yet constitute an instru- 

 ment of far greater power, and seem to intimate 

 that it must be something more than grass that 

 requires an apparatus so formidable. 



The flattened form of the Marine Turtles pre- 

 sents little resistance to the fluid in which they 

 move, and their broad oar-like feet enable them 

 to swim and dive with great velocity and grace. 

 Mr. Audubon speaks of some species shooting 

 through the element with the arrowy fleetness 

 of a bird on the wing. Except when they come 

 on shore to lay their eggs on the sand, or clamber 

 on the rocks, as intimated above, to browse on 

 herbage, the Turtles never leave the sea ; they 

 may often be seen in fair weather in the tropics, 

 floating motionless on the calm surface of the 



