3442 TORTOISES, TURTLES, AND PLESIOSAURS 



the females are more valuable than the males, and, as they are more easily captured, 

 the proportion found on the island is one female to every ten males, although, for 

 one of the latter, about ten of the former sex are hatched. Turtles generally come 

 ashore on fine moonlight nights, displaying great caution in landing, and then gen- 

 erally uttering a loud hissing noise which serves to disperse many of their enemies. 

 Once landed, the female turtle, writes Audubon, "proceeds to form a hole in the 

 sand, which she effects by removing it from under her body with her hind flippers, 

 scooping it out with so much dexterity that the sides seldom, if ever, fall in. The 

 sand is raised alternately with each flipper, as with a large ladle, until it has accu- 

 mulated behind her, when, supporting herself with her head and forepart on the 

 ground fronting her body, she, with a spring from each flipper, sends the sand 

 around, scattering it to the distance of several feet. In this manner the hole is dug 

 to the depth of eighteen inches, or sometimes more than two feet. This labor I 

 have seen performed in the short space of nine minutes. The eggs are then 

 dropped one by one, and disposed in regular layers, to the number of one hundred 

 and fifty, or sometimes nearly two hundred. The whole time spent in this part of 

 the operation may be about twenty minutes. She now scrapes the loose sand back 

 over the eggs, and so levels and smooths the surface that few persons on seeing the 

 spot could imagine that anything had been done to it. This accomplished to her 

 mind, she retreats to the water with all possible dispatch, leaving the hatching of 

 the eggs to the heat of the sand." During a season each female will lay three 

 clutches of eggs, at intervals of from a fortnight to three weeks, usually from one 

 hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty in number. No sooner are the 

 young turtles hatched, than hosts fall victims to land crabs, frigate, and other 

 sea birds, while, when they reach the sea, they are attacked by swarms of pre- 

 daceous fishes. To escape the latter, the young reptiles allow themselves to be 

 carried out by currents into deep water, where they are less readily seized. During 

 the breeding season the males fight desperately with one another, to the great joy 

 of the sharks, by whom the disabled ones are seized. 



When first laid, the round eggs of turtles are never quite full, but before hatch- 

 ing become fully distended. In describing the breeding habits of the turtles kept 

 in a pond near the dockyard in Ascension island, Moseley states that in the breed- 

 ing season the females dig great holes as large as themselves in a bank of sand, in 

 which to deposit their eggs. The sand in which the eggs are laid does not feel 

 warm to the hand, but during the daytime is rather cool, while it is at all times 

 moist. Its temperature appears to undergo no material variation, owing to the 

 depth at which the eggs are deposited, such medium amount of heat being sufficient 

 for the hatching. 



Although a large number of green turtles are captured by being turned on their 

 backs while on shore, in the Seychelles and Bahamas they are harpooned. In Keel- 

 ing island the method of capture is described by Darwin as follows: "The water 

 is so clear and shallow that, although at first a turtle dives quickly out of sight, yet, 

 in a canoe or boat under sail, the pursuers, after no long chase, come up to it. A 

 man, standing nearly in the bows at this moment, dashes through the water upon 

 .the turtle's back, then, clinging with both hands to the shell of the neck, he is 



