NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Description of the largest species. 



forsake the place. They lay their i?ggs at three, 

 and sometimes four different times, fourteen days 

 asunder, so that the young are hatched and come 

 forth also at different times. After having de- 

 posited the eggs they scratch the hole up with 

 sand, and leave them to be hatched by the heat 

 of the sun, which is generally done in about 

 three weeks. The eggs are each about the size 

 of a tennis ball, round, white, and covered with 

 a parchment-like skin, 



The loggerhead turtle is one of the largest 

 species, and in its general appearance has a great 

 resemblance to the last. The head, however, is 

 larger, the shell broader, and the number of seg- 

 ments of the disk is fifteen, of which the middle 

 range is gibbous or protuberant towards their 

 tips ; the fore legs are large and strong, and the 

 hind ones broad and shorter. These turtles in- 

 habit the seas about the West India islands, and 

 they are found in the Mediterranean, but parti- 

 cularly about the coasts of Italy and Sicily. 

 They range very far over the ocean. One of 

 them was seen in latitude thirty degrees north, 

 sleeping on the surface of the water, apparently 

 about midway between the Azores and the Ba- 

 hama islands, and these were the nearest possible 

 land. This circumstance was the more rem^rk- 

 able as it happened in the month of April, just 

 at their breeding time. 



These turtles are remarkably strong and fierce, 

 defending themselves with great vigor with their 



