SEASON OF LAYING. 187 



paid, they have sufficient firmness for the children of the 

 Ottomac Indians, who are great players at ball, to throw them 

 into the air from one to another. If the arrau inhabited 

 the bed of the river above the cataracts, the Indians of the 

 Upper Orinoco would not travel so far to procure the flesh 

 and the eggs of this tortoise. Yet, formerly, whole tribea 

 from the Atabapo and the Cassiquiare have been known to 

 pass the cataracts, in order to take part in the fishery at 

 Uruana. 



The terekay is less than the arrau. It is in general only 

 fourteen inches in diameter. The number of plates in the 

 upper shell is the same, but they are somewhat differently 

 arranged. I counted three in the centre of the disk, and 

 five hexagonal on each side. The margins contain twenty- 

 four, all quadrangular, and much curved. The upper shell 

 is of a black colour inclining to green ; the feet and claws 

 are like those of the arrau. The whole animal is of an 

 olive-green, but it has two spots of red mixed with yellow on 

 the top of the head. The throat is also yellow, and fur- 

 nished with a prickly appendage. The terekays do not 

 assemble in numerous societies like the arraus, to lay tneir 

 eggs in common, and deposit them upon the same shore. 

 The eggs of the terekay have an agreeable taste, and are 

 much sought after by the inhabitants of Spanish Guiana. 

 They are found in the Upper Orinoco, as well as below the 

 cataracts, and even in the A pure, the Uritucu, the Guarico, 

 and the small rivers that traverse the Llanos of Caracas. 

 The form of the feet and head, the appendages of the chin 

 and throat, and the position of the anus, seem to indicate 

 that the arrau, and probably the terekay also, belong to a 

 new subdivision of the tortoises, that may be separated from 

 the emydes. The period at which the large arrau tortoise 

 lays its eggs coincides with the period of the lowest waters. 

 The Orinoco beginning to increase from the vernal equinox, 

 the lowest flats are found uncovered from the end of Ja- 

 nuary till the 20th or 25th of March. The arrau tor- 

 toises collect in troops in the month of January, then issue 

 from the water, and warm themselves in the sun, reposing 

 on the sands. The Indians belieye that great heat is in- 

 dispensable to the health of the animal, and that its expo- 



