HERPETOLOGY OF PORTO RICO. 



709 



]S14. Chdonias Ivtaria Rafinesque, Specchio d. Sci. (Palermo), II, No. 9, 1 Sett. 



1814, p. 66 (Mediterranean). 

 1820. Sphargis mercurialia Mereem, Syst. Ainph., p. 19 (Mediterranean and 



Atlantic) . 

 1829. Sphargis tuberculoid Gravenhorst, Delic. Mus. Vratislav., p. 9. 



No Porto Riean specimen of the great Leatherback turtle being at 

 hand, a detailed description of the species seems superfluous, as it can 

 readily be identified from the general key to the turtles given above. 

 The young can easily be recognized from the appended figures (figs. 

 175-178). 



This truly oceanic species comes occasionally to the coasts of Porto 

 Rico with the intention of depositing its eggs in the sand. Thus 

 Bello y Espinosa reports that on April 19, 1869, a grown female was 



176 178 



Figs. 176-178. — Debmochelys com ace a, young. Natural size. 176, underside of shell; 177, side of 

 head; 178, underside of head. No. 19796, U.S.N.M. 



caught, though he does not give the locality. It measured 2.08 meters 

 over the curvature of the carapace. The color was of a plumbeous 

 gray, with numerous small whitish spots; head and feet somewhat 

 darker gray, the latter with whitish spots, the former with dark spots. 

 It contained a large number of eggs. 



It may be this same individual to which Dr. Stahl refers. He 

 reports that in the plaj T a of Dorado a "tinglado" was seen coming 

 out of the sea; it immediately dug a pit, in which it deposited in a 

 few moments 78 eggs. 



