TURTLES AND TORTOISES 45 



the Green Turtle. The meat is dark red and not unlike 

 beef both in looks and taste. 



In May and June, numbers of Loggerheads lay their 

 eggs along the Florida coast. An enormous number of 

 eggs is deposited, varying from fifty to a thousand, 

 according to the size and the age of the female. The 

 turtles generally leave the water at night, laboring over 

 the sand to a point above tide line. Here a hollow is 

 scooped with the front flippers, then the animal grovels 

 in the sand, shoving it out of the burrow behind her 

 with the rear paddles. The eggs are soon laid and 

 well covered, when the female starts again for the sea. 

 Her progress up the beach and the return to the water 

 are usually so erratic that it is impossible to discover, 

 by the tracks, the exact spot where the eggs have been 

 deposited. Persons who make it a business to hunt 

 for the eggs carry a sharp stick which they run into 

 the sand at intervals along the reptile's tracks, thus 

 sounding for the eggs. If unmolested, the eggs hatch 

 in about two months' time. The little turtles seek shal- 

 low inlets until they have acquired sufficient strength 

 to lead a strictly marine life. A small portion of the 

 brood reaches maturity. Enemies are many in the shape 

 of large fish and sea birds. 



To discover one of these sea monsters on the beach 

 is to experience a certain feeling of awe. The great, 

 floundering brute, in the fulfillment of parental duties, 

 is practically at man's mercy, yet clumsily alert. It 

 sullenly exhales the breath with a deep, roaring sound, 

 while the bleary, seal-like eyes stare in a seemingly 

 vacant fashion. If a big conch shell is shoved within 

 reach of the jaws, it is seized and crushed in a single 

 grasp. Turned on its back, the giant is helpless. If 

 not hindered, it makes for the sea, causing a great com- 



