996 19. CHELONllDJE 



Remarks. It is said that an average Hawksbill Turtle 

 will weigh about 20 or 30 pounds. Large specimens yield 

 as much as eight or ten pounds of shell. 



Habits. This is a marine species which resorts to sandy 

 beaches to lay its eggs in pits which it digs. The eggs are 

 more or less spherical and are inclosed in leathery shells. 

 Its food is said to consist of fish, mollusks and crustaceans. 



Genus 56. Chelonia 



CAelonia LATREILLE, Hist. Nat. Rept., Vol. 1, 1802, p. 22 (type, mydas). 



The shell is covered with thin horny plates which are 

 not imbricate. There is but one pair of prefrontal plates. 

 There is little or no keeling of the vertebral, costal or plas- 

 tral plates. The vertebrals are five and the costals four in 

 number. 



The so-called green or soup turtles live in nearly all 

 tropical and semitropical seas. Little is known regarding 

 specific variation. Atlantic and Pacific Ocean species usually 

 are considered to be distinct. 



230. Chelonia agassizii Bocourt 

 PACIFIC GREEN TURTLE 



Chelonia agassizii BOCOURT, Ann. Sci. Nat., Ser. 5, Zool., Vol. 10, Pts. 

 1-3, 1868, p. 122 (type locality, Pacific Coast of Guatemala); 

 DUMERIL & BOCOURT, Miss. Sci. au Mex., Reptiles, le livr., 1870, 

 p. 26, pi. VI; COPE, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus, No. 32, 1887, p. 24; 

 VAN DENBURGH, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., Ser. 2, Vol. V, 1895, p. 83; 

 STEJNEGER & BARBOUR, Check List N. Amer. Amph. Rept., 1917, 

 p. 122; VAN DENBURGH & SLEVIN, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 

 Vol. XI, 1921, p. 53; NELSON, Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci., Vol. XVI, 

 1921, p. 114. 



Chelonia virgata TRUE, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 24, 1883, p. 28; TOWN- 

 SEND, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. XXXV, 1916, p. 445. 



Chelonia japonica STEPHENS, Trans. San Diego Nat. Hist., Vol. Ill, 

 No. 4, 1921, p. 65. 



