90 IMBRICATED TURTLE. 



at the tip, more especially in the young or halt- 

 grown animal, and has a ridge or carina down 

 the middle : the head is smaller in proportion than 

 in other turtles ; the neck longer, and the beak 

 narrower, sharper, and more curved, so as to bear 

 no inconsiderable resemblance to the bill of a 

 hawk, from which circumstance the animal de- 

 rives its common or popular name of the Hawks- 

 bill Turtle. The fore legs are longer than in the 

 rest of the tribe, and it is said that when turned or 

 laid on its back, the animal is enabled by their 

 assistance, to reach the ground, in such a manner 

 as to recover its former situation, which no other 

 turtle can do. In old specimens the neatness of 

 the shell, and the well-defined outline of the scales, 

 is occasionally impaired, and this seems to be one 

 principal reason of its having been sometimes con- 

 founded with the Caretta, or Loggerhead Turtle. 

 The Hawksbiil Turtle is a native of the Asiatic 

 and American seas, and is sometimes, though less 

 frequently, found in the Mediterranean. Its ge- 

 neral length seems to be about three feet, from 

 the tip of the bill to the end of the shell ; but it 

 has been known to measure five feet in length, 

 and to weigh five or six hundred pounds. In the 

 Indian ocean in particular, specimens are said to- 

 have occurred of prodigious magnitude. 



The shell of this animal was anciently used for 

 a shield, and still serves for that purpose among 

 barbarous nations. The flesh is in no estimation 

 as a food, the lamella? or plates of the shell, which 

 are faj stronger, thicker, and clearer than in any 



