996 19. CHELONUDA 
Remarks.—It is said that an average Hawksbill Turtle 
will weigh about 20 or 30 pounds. Large specimens yield 
as much as eight or ten pounds of shell. 
Flabits—This is 2 marine species which resorts to sandy 
beaches to lay its eggs in pits which it digs. The eggs are 
more or less spherical and are inclosed in leathery shells. 
Its food is said to consist of fish, mollusks and crustaceans. 
Genus 56. Chelonia 
Chelonia Larre1.ie, Hist, Nat. Rept., Vol. 1, 1802, p. 22 (type, mydas). 
The shell is covered with thin horny plates which are 
not imbricate. There is but one pair of prefrontal plates. 
There is little or no keeling of the vertebral, costal or plas- 
tral plates. The vertebrals are five and the costals four in 
number. 
The so-called green or soup turtles live in nearly all 
tropical and semitropical seas. Little is known regarding 
specific variation. Atlantic and Pacific Ocean species usually 
are considered to be distinct. 
230. Chelonia agassizii Bocourt 
Paciric GREEN TuRTLE 
Chelonia agassizii Bocourt, Ann. Sci. Nat., Ser. 5, Zool., Vol. 10, Pts. 
1-3, 1868, p. 122 (type locality, Pacific Coast of Guatemala); 
Dumérit & Bocourt, Miss. Sci. au Mex., Reptiles, re livr., 1870, 
p. 26, pl. VI; Cops, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus, No. 32, 1887, p. 24; 
Van Densurcu, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., Ser. 2, Vol. V, 1895, p. 83; 
STEJNEGER & Barsour, Check List N. Amer. Amph. Rept., 1917, 
p- 122; Van Denspurcu & Stevin, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 
Vol. XI, 1921, p. 53; Netson, Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci., Vol. XVI, 
1921, p. 114. 
Chelonia virgata TRvE, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 24, 1883, p. 28; Town- 
sEND, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. XXXV, 1916, p. 445. 
Chelonia japonica STEPHENS, Trans. San Diego Nat. Hist., Vol. III, 
No. 4, 1921, p. 65. 
