THE TURTLES 



2441 



Loggerhead 

 Turtle 



all ages the hinder margin of the carapace is more or less strongly serrated; and the 

 compressed and sharply-hooked beak will always serve to distinguish at a glance a 

 hawksbill from a green turtle. Moreover, the limbs always have two claws. In the 

 adult, the shields of the carapace are beautifully marbled and mottled with yellow 

 and dark reddish brown, while the plastron is yellow, and the shields on flie head 

 and paddles are brown with yellow margins. In size this species is somewhat in- 

 ferior to the green turtle, the carapace attaining a length of about thirty-two inches, 

 against forty-two inches in the latter. In habits the hawksbill differs markedly 

 from the green turtle, being exclusively carnivorous. 



The third, and probably the largest species of turtle, is the loggerhead 

 (Thalassochelys caretta), easily recognized by its enormous head and 

 the presence of at least five costal shields on each side of the carapace, 

 which differs from that of the two preceding species by becoming completely ossified 

 in the adult state. The beak is strongly hooked; and while in the young there are 

 usually two claws to each paddle, one of these frequently disappears in the adult. 

 In color, the adult is brown above and yellowish beneath, but the young is uni- 

 formly dark brown or blackish. The Mexican loggerhead ( T. kempi] from the 

 Gulf of Mexico, differs in having a median ridge on the bone of each jaw, whereas 

 in the ordinary species such 

 ridges are confined to the in- 

 vesting horny sheath. Ac- 

 cording to Mr. Gosse, logger- 

 heads feed on cuttles and other 

 mollusks, their powerful beaks 

 enabling them to crush strong 

 conch shells as easily as a man 

 can crack a nut. 



Apart from the 

 Habits ,.. ,, . 



difference in their 



food, all turtles appear to be 

 similar in their general mode 

 of life, never leaving the sea 

 except for the purpose of lay- 

 ing their eggs, and then shuff- 

 ling along in an awkward, 

 ungainly manner. During the 



laying season they resort to low sandy coasts, especially unfrequented tropical 

 islands, in vast numbers; and if once turned on their backs, while on shore, are 

 unable to right themselves again. This habit of resorting to the land to lay their 

 eggs clearly proves, it may be observed, the descent of turtles from fresh- water 

 members of the order. Writing of the green turtles at Aldabra, one of the Seychelles 

 group of islands, Mr. Spurs remarks that the males permanently frequent the bay of 

 that island, the females when they attain full maturity (twenty or twenty-five years) 

 disappearing altogether. When the latter come to the shore for the purpose of laying, 

 their shells are covered with barnacles of two or three weeks' growth. Commercially, 



YOUNG LOGGERHEAD TURTLE. 



