22 



THE LUTE, OR LEATHERY TURTLE. 



The Leathery Turtle feeds on fish, Crustacea, mollusks, radiates, and other animals, and 

 its flesh seems to be hurtful, causing many symptoms of poisoning in those who eat it. 



This species is remarkable for having no horny plates, the bones of the carapace and 

 plastron being covered with a strong leathery skin, smooth in the adult animal, but covered 

 with tubercles in the young. Along the back run seven ridges, sharp, and slightly toothed in 

 the full-grown Turtle, but bluntly tubercled in the young. The eye is very curious, as the lids 

 are set vertically instead of horizontally, and when the creature opens and shuts its eyes, have 

 a very singular effect. The jaws are very formidable, being sharply edged, deeply scooped 

 with three rounded notches in the front of the upper jaw, so as to form two curved sharply 

 pointed teeth, and the extremity of the lower jaw is strongly hooked. 



f " 



LUTH, OH LKATUEKY TURTLE Dermatachelyt ooriacea. 



The legs of the Leathery Turtle are very long, especially the two fore-limbs, which, in a 

 specimen measuring eight feet in total length, were nearly three feet long, and more than nine 

 inches wide. The feet are not furnished with claws, but the toes have a little horny scale at 

 their tips, which take the place of the claws. The general color of this animal is dark brown, 

 with pale yellow spots, but sometimes the skin is irregularly pied with black and white. 



This great creature is essentially a sea-going one, though perhaps not more so than the 

 Hawk's-bill, Green, and Loggerhead species. Its very large flippers rather suggest the above 



statement. 



The editor of this edition has taken the liberty to drop from the original text the state- 

 ment that this Tortoise resorts to the Tortugas Islands for breeding purposes. This statement 

 has no foundation in fact. The great Loggerheads and the Green Turtles do resort to that 

 irmup of keys, and breed in considerable numbers, a notice of which will be seen in the text 

 on those species. The breeding-places of the Leathery Tortoise are not known to science. 



Our first acquaintance with this creature was during the summer of 1855, when a middle- 

 sized one came ashore on Nahant Beach, near Boston, Mass. A bullet-hole in the neck 

 explained its present condition. Until this specimen came ashore this species was regarded 



