REPTILIA 137 



Turtles are used for food over practically the entire world, but, it is 

 said, their flesh is forbidden to Mohammedans, and is abhorred by cer- 

 tain Greeks. 



Nearly, if not all, species may be eaten, but there is, of course, much 

 difference in the quality of the flesh, and Surface (136) states that during 

 a strike of miners in eastern Pennsylvania many of them were made 

 sick by eating turtles, supposedly the box tortoise, so that the common 

 idea that this form is inedible, at least at certain seasons, is probably 

 correct. There are also a few species whose offensive odor makes them 

 undesirable as food. It is said that even the flesh of the Green Turtle, 

 about to be described, is poisonous at certain seasons of the year in 

 some countries where it is found. 



The Green Turtle, Chelone mydas, Fig. 95. This is, perhaps, the 

 most important of the turtles as an article of food; it is an important 

 article of commerce, and is an important part of the diet of some of the 

 tropical peoples. It is found in tropical and semitropical seas through- 

 out the world, and may reach a weight of 500 pounds, though these 

 huge ones are not so good for food; those found in markets usually 

 weigh from 50 to 75 pounds. The name has been given because 

 of the green color of the flesh. Jamaica was formerly, and perhaps 

 still is, one of the chief centres for the Green Turtle industry; Key 

 West has also been an important centre. In one year 15,000 animals 

 were received into England, besides a large amount of dried meat in cans, 

 the meat for canning being cut into strips and dried in the sun, where it 

 acquires almost the consistency of glue and requires long soaking in water 

 before it is fit for food. About 1900 the turtle trade of Jamaica 

 amounted to about $50,000, and the demand was greater than the 

 supply. 



As in many other turtles the oil may be extracted and used for 

 culinary purposes in place of butter or olive oil. 



In markets these turtles are kept lying on their backs not only to 

 keep them from escaping but because, being adapted to life in the water, 

 they would not be able to breathe if laid upon a hard surface, right side 

 up; their plastron is not firm, like that of a land form, and the weight 

 of the animal, when not supported by the surrounding water, so com- 

 presses the internal organs that suffocation may be produced. The 

 flesh may be cooked in various ways, and is said to be very digestible. 



The Green Turtle lays from 200 to 300 leathery-shelled eggs that are 



