ON REPTILES. Ill 



surface that few persons on seeing the spot 

 could suppose that anything had been done to 

 it. After this operation she quickly returns to 

 the sea, the eggs being hatched by the heat of 

 the sand. Each turtle has generally three lay- 

 ings of eggs in the season. When the young 

 ones are hatched, which takes place from a fort- 

 night to three weeks after the eggs have been 

 deposited, they make their way to the water, 

 when numbers of them fall a prey to birds, or 

 are seized in the sea and devoured by shoals of 

 fish and crocodiles. However, as we have seen 

 that the female turtle deposits her eggs pro- 

 bably altogether to the number of five hundred 

 three times a-year, we may suppose that many 

 escape from their enemies, and thus a provision 

 is made for keeping up a due supply of these 

 useful creatures. This is very much the case 

 with respect to the guinea-fowl. In the extensive 

 woods of Africa these birds are found in great 

 numbers. They lay their eggs on the ground 

 to the amount of twenty or thirty, and the 

 shells of these eggs are so hard that it is not 

 easy to break them. Now, as snakes, which 

 will feed 6n eggs, are very numerous in these 



