296 REPTILES OF BERMUDA. 



is vegetable. When iu the crawls or turtle pens they are fed upon 

 fishes and meats of various kinds, as are the other sorts. The princi- 

 pal food of the genus {Chelonia) seems to be the sea-grass, Zostera 

 marina, commonly called " Turtle Grass." When grazing turtles eat 

 the roots, and the tops of the grass rising to the surface mark the 

 feeding ground and often betray them to the " turtler." My inform- 

 ant tells me the Loggerheads nip the smaller portion of the Spiral from 

 the large conchs, and in this way extract the animal. Trunkbacks some- 

 times exceed 1,200 pounds in weight. The largest we have been able to 

 measure was close upon 7 feet in length and weighed about 1,000 pounds. 

 The Green are next in size. Eight hundred and fifty pounds is the 

 largest of which we can learn. The largest Loggerhead of which we 

 have positive information did not exceed 450; and Mr. Kemp says a 

 shell turtle weighing 100 pounds is a very large one. 



Xear the haunts prices of the meats vary from 4 to 10 cents per pound 

 alive, and from 12 to 18 dressed. A specimen of Green Turtle weighing 

 100 pounds is considered to be between three and four years of age. In 

 its first year it would attain a weight of 15 to 20 pounds. Turtles are 

 captured by pegging, by means of long nets, and when they come on 

 shore to lay. Ordinarily the creatures are timid and endeavor to escape. 

 In the water it is not very difl&cult to follow them, as they rise from 

 time to time to breathe. When tired out they go to the bottom, and 

 seldom make much resistance to beiug hauled on board the boat or 

 towed ashore by a line attached to the peg. A peg is a small steel 

 instrument like a blunt nail, to which a long cord is attached, and which 

 slips out of the socket in which it is placed, on the end of a long pole, 

 on being struck into the shell of the turtle. Being firmly wedged by 

 the bone, the peg enables the turtler to draw his prey about by the 

 line attached to it. By much practice the turtlers become very dexterous 

 in taking objects in the water. One who assisted me in collecting, and 

 to whom I am indebted for a great deal of information, Daniel Williams, 

 of Florida Keys, did not seem to have his aim at all aflectedby differences 

 of depths or angles in situations in which a novice would find it difli- 

 cult to strike objects of five times the size. During the mating season 

 turtles are much less timid, and boats are allowed to approach quite 

 near. The season varies somewhat for the dift'erent kinds. From the 

 most reliable accounts it is April to June for the Green, Loggerhead, 

 and Shell turtles (Ilawkbill), and for Bastard and Trunkback it is De- 

 cember to February (see below). Coupling takes place in the water and 



