CRUST ACEOUS PISHES. 



07, < 



After some time thus employed, they seek 

 their former stations: and when done feeding, 

 they generally float with their heads above 

 water, unless they are alarmed by the ap- 

 proach of hunters or birds of prey, in which 

 case they suddenly plunge to the bottom. 

 They often seek their provision among the 

 rocks, feeding upon moss and sea-weed : and 

 it is probable will not disdain to prey upon 

 insects and other small animals, as they are 

 very fond of flesh when taken and fed tor the 

 table. 



At the time of breeding, they are seen to 

 forsake their former haunts and their food, and 

 to take sometimes a voyage of nine hundred 

 miles to deposite their eggs on some favourite 

 shore. The coasts they always resort to upon 

 these occasions are those that are low, flat, 

 and sandy ; for being heavy animals, they can- 

 not climb a bold shore ; nor is any bod so 

 proper as sand to lay their eggs on. They 

 couple in March, and continue united till May ; 

 during a great part of which time they are 

 seen locked together, and almost incapable of 

 separation. The female seems passive and 

 reluctant; but the male grasps her with his 

 claws in such a manner, that nothing can in- 

 duce him to qujt his hold. It would seem that 

 the grasp, as in frogs, is in some measure con- 

 vulsive, and that the animal is unable to relax 

 its efforts. 



When the time for laying approaches, the 

 female is seen towards the setting of the sun 

 drawing near the shore, and looking earnestly 

 about her, as if afraid of being discovered. 

 When she perceives any person on shore, she 

 seeks for another place; but if otherwise, she 

 lands when it is dark, and goes to take a sur- 

 vey of the sand where she designs to lay. 

 Having i-iarked the spot, she goes back, with-, 

 out laying for that night, to the ocean again : 

 but the next night returns to deposite a part of 

 her burden. She begins by working and 

 digging in the sand with her fore-fet t till she 

 has made a round hole, a foot broad and a 

 foot and a half deep, just at the place a little 

 above where the water reaches highest. This 

 done, she lays eighty or ninety eggs at a time, 

 each as big as a hen's egg, and as round as a 

 ball. She continues laying about the space 

 of an hour, during which time, if a cart were 

 driven over her, she would not be induced to 

 stir- The eggs are covered with a tough 



NO. 57 & 58. 



white skin, like wetted parchment. When 

 she has done laying she covers the hole so dex- 

 terously, that it is no easy matter to find the 

 place ; and these must be accustomed to the 

 search to make the discovery. When the 

 turtle has done laying she returns to the sea, 

 and leaves her eggs to be hatched by the heat 

 of the sun. At the end of fifteen days she lays 

 about the same number of eggs again ; and at 

 the end of another fifteen days she repeats the 

 same ; three times in all, using 'the same pre- 

 cautions every time for their safety. 



In about twenty-four or twenty-five days 

 after laying, the eggs are hatched by the heat of 

 the sun ; and the young turtles, being about 

 as big as quails, are seen bursting from the 

 sand, as if earth-born, and running directly to 

 the sea, with instinct only for their guide : 

 but, to their great misfortune, it often happens 

 that, their strength being small, the surges of 

 the sea, for some few days, beat them back 

 upon the shore. Thus exposed, they remain 

 a prey to thousands of birds that then haunt 

 the coasts ; and these stooping down upon 

 them, carry off the greatest part, and some- 

 times the wl.olc brood, before they have 

 strength sufficient to withstand the waves, or 

 dive to the bottom. Helbigius informs us, 

 that they have still another enemy to fear, 

 which is no other than the parent that pro- 

 duced them, that waits for their arrival at the 

 edge of the deep, and devours as many as she 

 can. -This circumstance, however, demands 

 further confirmation ; though nothing is more 

 certain than that the crocodile acts in the same 

 unnatural manner. 



When thr turtles have done laying, they 

 then return to their accustomed places of feed"- 

 ing. Upon their out-set to the shore, where 

 they breed, they are always found fat and 

 healthy ; but upon their return, they are weak, 

 lean, and unfit to be eaten. They are seldom, 

 therefore, molested upon their retreat ; but 

 the great art is to seize them when arrived, or 

 to intercept their arrival. In these uninhabit- 

 ed islands, to which the green-turtle chiefly 

 resorts, the men that go to take them land 

 about night-fall, and without making any 

 noise (for those animals, though without any 

 external opening of the ear, hear very dis- 

 tinctly, there being an auditory conduit that 

 opens into the mouth) lie close while they see 

 the female turtle coming on shore. They Jet 



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