TURTLE GENERALLY 159 



plates are detached freely. Exposure to fire deteriorates 

 the quality of the product unless great care is exercised. 



The green turtle, with thin dovetailing plates, is the 

 most plentiful and valued principally for food. But all 

 green turtle are not acceptable. An old bull is so rank, 

 that " there is no living near it it would infect the North 

 Star." There are many Europeans who cannot relish even 

 good green turtle, however tender, delicate, and sweet it 

 may be. The worthy chaplain of Anson's fleet who " wrote 

 up " the famous voyages, has some shrewd observations on 

 the subject of green turtle, which he refers to as the most 

 delicious of all flesh, "so very palatable and salubrious," 

 though proscribed by the Spaniards as unwholesome and 

 little less than poisonous. He suggests that the strange 

 appearance of the animal may have been the foundation of 

 "this ridiculous and superstitious aversion." Perhaps the 

 poor Spaniards of those days happened in the first instance 

 upon an ancient bull, or a hawksbill, and tapped the 

 poison gland, or a loggerhead or a luth, and came ever 

 after to entertain, with right good cause, a holy terror of 

 turtle, irrespective of species. 



An interesting phase in the life-history of the green 

 turtle is the deception the female employs when about to 

 lay eggs. Her " nests " are shallow pits in the sand. She 

 may make several during a hasty visit to a favourite beach, 

 while postponing the laying until the following day. 

 Whether this is a conscious stratagem by which the turtle 

 hopes to mislead and bewilder other animals partial to the 

 eggs, or merely a caprice one of those idle fancies which 

 the feminine part of animated Nature frequently indulge in 

 at a time when their faculties are at unusual tension does 

 not appear to be quite understood. When serious business 

 is intended, the turtle scoops new pits, leaving some of 

 them partially and others quite unfilled. These also 

 appear to be intended to delude. That in which the eggs 

 are deposited is filled in and the surface smoothed and 

 flattened, and in cases where the nest is any distance 

 beyond the limits of high-water, it is frequently carelessly 



