190 



ZOOLOGY. 



[Part II. 



exclusively from that source, there is room for beheving 

 that the poison may have been contained in some other 

 ingredient. In the Gulf of Manaar turtle is frequently 

 found of such a size as to measure between four and 

 five feet in length ; and on one occasion, in riding along 

 the sea-shore north of Putlam, I saw a man in charge 

 of some sheep, resting under the shade of a turtle shell, 

 which he had erected on sticks to protect him from the 

 sun — almost verifying the statement of ^han, that in 

 the seas off Ceylon there are tortoises so large that 

 several persons may find ample shelter beneath a single 

 shell.i 



The hawksbill turtle ^, which supphes the tortoise-shell 

 of commerce, was at former times taken in great num- 

 bers in the vicinity of Hambangtotte during the season 

 when they came to deposit their eggs, and there is stiU 

 a considerable trade in this article, which is manufac- 

 tured into ornaments, boxes, and combs by the Moor- 

 men resident at Galle. If taken from the animal after 

 death and decomposition, the colour of the shell becomes 

 clouded and milky, and hence the cruel expedient is 

 resorted to of seizing the turtles as they repair to the 

 shore to deposit then- eggs, and suspending them over 

 fires till heat makes the plates on the dorsal shields 

 start from the bone of the carapace, after which the 

 creature is permitted to escape to the water,^ In 

 illustration of the resistless influence of instinct at the 



' " T'lKTOvTai Se apa iv ravrtj ry da- 

 Xi'iTTy, Kill ^fXitii'"' jusytirrai, wvTrep ovv 

 TCI tXvTpa 6po<poi yh'ovTcu' Kai yap tan 

 Kai T^tvTiKaiSiKa Trrj^Si' 'iv y^tKiijviiov, 

 lOQ VTTOiKiiv oiiK oX/yovr, Kai rovg 7']\iovg 

 •KVpwCKTTaTovQ airoari-yti, Kai (tkioiv cit- 

 l^iivoiQ Trap'ixtiy — Lib. xvi. C. 17. 

 iElian copied this statement lite- 

 ratim from Megasthenes, Indica 

 Frag. lix. 31 ; and may not Mega- 

 sthenes liave referred to some tradi- 

 tion connected with the gigantic 

 fossilised species discovered on the 

 Sewalik Hills, the remains of which 



are now in the Museum at the East 

 India House ? 



"^ Chelonia imbricata, Linn. 



^ At Celebes, whence the finest 

 tortoise-shell is exported to China, 

 the natives kill the tm-tle by blows 

 on the head, and immerse the shell 

 in boiling water to detach the plates. 

 Dry heat is only resorted to by the 

 unskilful, who frequently destroy the 

 tortoise-shell in the operation. — 

 Joum. Indian Archipcd. vol. iii. p. 227, 

 1849. 



