508 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HLST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV. 



lamp bracket on a verandah which is in constant use. Nothing worried the 

 parents and they hatched out a couple of young ones. The dove is I think 

 Turtur cambayensis, the Little Brown Dove. 



W. G. BARNETT. 



PooNA, September, 1917. 



No. XVI.— HABITS OF THE GREEN TVHIIJj^ {CHELONE MYDAS). 



We all know that a turtle lays its eggs in the sand, but there does not 

 appear to be any record in the Society's Journal of exactly how this opera- 

 tion is performed. 



When at Karachi early in July I was fortunate enough to witness the 

 whole procedure, so send a note of the occurrence. The turtle emerged 

 from the surf at about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the tide being near the 

 full, and proceeded about 40 yards inland to the foot of a cliff. She then 

 stubbed her nose against some stones, so turned them aside until, having 

 found a place to her satisfaction, she settled herself down with the aid of 

 her flappers and by sideways movements of her body, until she was sunk 

 below the sand level about two inches in front and some six inches behind. 



Then, using each hind flapper in turn, she scooped out a handful of sand 

 and deposited it to one side. As each "handful" was thus deposited, 

 the body was moved over towards that side so as to bring the opposite flap- 

 per into position, and this was then reached down to draw up its " handful"' 

 of sand, and so on. 



The hole scooped out was about 24 inches in depth, 30 inches from sand 

 level, the depth being regulated by the utmost extent to which the flapper 

 could reach, and this coinciding with the reach of a man's arm. Sufficient 

 excavation having been made the turtle — panting with its exertions — lay 

 quiet for about 20 minutes, and then, the eggs having been laid, proceed- 

 ed to fill in the sand, using the flappers the reverse way to that em- 

 ployed for the excavation. She then drew herself slightly forward and 

 patted down the sand over the hole with her flappers, moved her body over 

 the place to flatten it out, and turning round crawled back the way she 

 came, being " turned turtle " and also stood on, on the journey, and disap- 

 peared into the surf. 



Throughout these operations, which took about an hour, she paid no 

 attention to the interested lookers-on. A dog sniffed at her nose, children 

 and "grown up's " stood around and made rude remarks, but she did not 

 mind in the least and went steadily on with her business. Needless to add 

 that no sooner had she vacated her position than the eggs were dug up by 

 eager children and the spoil divided. The eggs numbered about a 

 hundred. They were in size and shape like a ping-pong ball, including the 

 small indentation caused, apparently, by each egg being dropped on to 

 the others below. I let some of the eggs fall from a height of about four 

 feet on to rock, and they bounded ofl" undamaged ; this being, no doubt, 

 Nature's provision to enable them to be dupped on to one another from the 

 necessary height when being laid. The turtle was about thirty inches long. 

 . I much regret the absence of a camera and neglect to accurately time the 

 various operations. The sand at the bottom of the hole was slightly damp. 



R. W. BURTON, Lt.-Col. 

 Bombay, Aur/ust 1917. 



