REPTILES OF BERMUDA. 297 



contiuues for considerable leugtbs of time. A strong nail on the first 

 digit of the forward paddles is bent downward so as to form a hook, 

 with which the shell of the female is grasped. " From two to four, some- 

 times five, lots of eggs, from 75 to 200 each, are laid in a season." The 

 layings are fourteen to fifteen days apart — " never more than fifteen 

 nor less than fourteen; so we know just when to cxi^ecther again, and 

 always very near the place where she laid the first lot." 



The nests are made at night. About to lay, the turtle approaches 

 the shore cautiously ; if not disturbed she lands and at once proceeds 

 to select a place to dig. The excavation is a foot or more in depth. 

 After the sand has been scooped out by the paddles and the eggs laid, 

 the sand is replaced carefully and packed by the weight of the body 

 during replacement. The trail from the water to the nest resembles the 

 track of a stone-sled and leads to a space larger than the turtle which 

 has been much trampled over. Somewhere in this space the turtler 

 expects to find the eggs. He uses a small stick with which he probes 

 the trodden area in all parts until, plunged through one or more of the 

 eggs, the yelk upon the probe locates them. A story is told by the 

 hunters to the eftect that after the nest is finished the turtle goes along 

 the beach a little way to trample over another space, in which no eggs 

 are placed, before returning to the water. On the fourteenth or fifteenth 

 night she is expected to return and make another nest near the first. 

 The hunter waits for her, and after she has left the water turns her on 

 her back. She is unable to right herself when turned, and her captor re- 

 turns at his leisure to take her to market. The eggs hatch in six to eight 

 weeks, and the young scramble into the water at once. They have no 

 means of defense, and are eagerly prej'ed ui)on by various birds and 

 fishes on their way and after they reach the sea. In the stomach of a 

 shark, which the kindness of Lieut. S. M. Ackley, U. S. K, enabled me 

 to examine, a 10-pound Green Turtle was found. The shell was too hard 

 for the shark's teeth, and was scored all over by the eflbrts of the "man- 

 eater" to divide it. Discouraged in his attempts he had at last swal- 

 lowed it entire. The greatest destruction undoubtedly takes place dur- 

 ing the first month or two of existence, while the shell is comparatively 

 soft and the size such as i^laces the little creatures at the mercy of the 

 fowls and most of the common fishes. 



It will be seen that the Florida authorities place the egg-laying time 

 in Ai)ril, May, and June ; in this they agree with the majority. The 

 notice cited above from William Strachy's narrative apparently places 



