DERMATOCHELYS COEIACEA, TRUNK BACK OR 

 LEATHERY TURTLE. 



BY J. H. SEARS. 



THE preparation of the present paper was suggested by 

 the capture, August 25, 1885, within the limits of Essex 

 County, of a fine specimen of the leathery or trunk turtle 

 which is now preserved in the collection of the Peabody 

 Academy of Science. 



This reptile is classed in the order Testudinata, section 

 Sphargididea, genus Dermatochelys. There are two 

 species : D. coriacea, inhabiting the tropical Atlantic and 

 adjacent waters, and D. scMegeti, the tropical Pacific and 

 Indian oceans. This classification is taken from Mr. 

 Samuel Garman's Reptiles and Batrachians of North 

 America, published in the Bulletin of the Essex Institute, 

 Vol. XVI, 1884. 



As early as 1554, this reptile was described by Ronde- 

 letus under the name of Testudo coriacea mercurii. In 

 1766, Linnasus figured and gave some account of this spe- 

 cies in his Natural System, which he named Testudo cori- 

 acea. Blainville, in the Bulletin Societe Philomatique in 

 1816, named the species Dermatochelys coriacea, as the 

 name denotes, Derma, skin, chelys, turtle. To separate 

 the species which have no shell from the Testudo or tor- 

 toises, Merrem, in his Amphibia, published in 1820, gave 

 to this genus of sea turtles the name of Sphargis and ap- 

 plied the specific name mercurilis to the species under 

 consideration. In 1829, Gravenhorst, in Okin Isis, gives 

 a description of one of these reptiles to which he gave 

 the name Testudo tuberculata. Wagler, in his system 



(87) 



