(iN I'lIK SIAI'i:s (II' cilKMiNIA MKI'liKSSA \'\{Y . 1<)5 



and West I'eroii. ()ii llicliisl iiiciit ioiicd isliind, j)ossessiiif; five 

 miles ot" heacli, I coiiiifed tliii'(eeii iicsis williiii a spaee of 

 twenty yai'ds. Tliey come and hiy on llm beacdi near tlie 

 li^-litlioiise, usiiiilly at sprinf^-lidc. 'I'lic next s[trin«»--tide tlie}' 

 retuiMi and lay \i^\'\ lu'ar the same spot, and so on, fof Hve oi- six 

 months. They do not seem to lia\e any part i(MiIai' l)i'eeding' 

 season, l)nt towards tlie end of t.lie dry season, in the months of 

 Aufifnst, iSe[)tenjl)ef and October, thei'e is, if aiiythinfj;', a little 

 slacking' off. The females usually lay at nip^ht time, and with tlie 

 aidof a hurricane lamp, of which they take not the si ig'h test notice, 

 I have of ten watched them pi"e})aring their nests and laying' their 

 eggs. They twist about so as to harden the surface somewha.t 

 before commencing to dig. The hind fiij)pers alone are used 

 in excavating and are worked alternately, being turned out- 

 wards like a scoop, a sharp jerk throwing the sa.nd a yard a way. 

 The hole made is eight or nine inchs in diameter and one foot 

 or more deep. She then moves her vent over the hole and Mty 

 or sixty eggs are laid in about five minutes. The average 

 number of eggs laid is fifty ; the greatest number I have seen 

 is seventy-eight, and the smallest twenty-four. The hole is 

 then filled in and a large mound scraped over it, the front 

 flippers being used for this — thus the eggs are eighteen to 

 twenty-four inches from the surface. She then makes for the 

 sea. The period of incubation is about six weeks. When 

 leaving the nest the young do not run together but spread out 

 and i-un fan-wise to the water, as I have counted fifty-two 

 separate tracks. The eggs and meat are a great source of food 

 to the blacks ; I have eaten hundreds of the eggs but find the 

 meat disagreeable and not nearly so good as that of C.viydasM 

 T never saw these turtles basking in the sun. They are appar- 

 ently a nervous creature in the water Init when up on the 

 beaches laying they take notice of nothing and w'ill crawl over 

 a sleeping black ' or through his camp fire. i\ flepressa is 

 much flatter than ('. imjdatt ami is shell-less — that is, there 

 are no hard plates, but a leatheiy skin only envelops the 

 bony skeleton. ( '. deprei^sa is known to the Larrakeyah tribe 

 of blacks as ' Adymer,' to the Bierly tribe as ' Ballan,' and 

 to the Wogite tribe as 'Ingering.' " 



1^ This may perhaps be the secret of the absence of this species from 



the turtle market, and thus, indirectly, the reason for its having been 

 overlooked for so long. 



