88 DERMATOCHELYS CORIACEA, 



Amphibia, 1830, called the species Dermatochelysporcata. 

 In 1831, Gray in his synopsis of the animal kingdom 

 classed this reptile as Chelonium (Sphargis) coriacea, and 

 later, in the same year in his Cataphracta, he gives it the 

 name of /Sphargis coriacea. In 1836, Lesueur, in Cu- 

 vier's Animal Distribution, gives the name Dermatocltelys 

 ailantica. From this date until 1871 nearly all that has 

 been recorded concerning this reptile has been under the 

 name of Sphargis coriacea. In 1871, Dr. Albert Giin- 

 ther in the Zoological Eecord, Vol. VIII, mentions an 

 example of Dermatochelys having the extreme dimen- 

 sions of nine feet. This specimen was taken on the coast 

 of New South Wales. 



This reptile is recorded as having been taken on the 

 coasts of France, England, Scotland, China, Japan, Af- 

 rica and America, but its occurrence has been so rare that 

 no accurate accounts of it have yet been published. Ac- 

 cording to Count Lacepede, a French naturalist, it was 

 this species of turtle with which the Greeks were best 

 acquainted, and he supposed it to have been particularly 

 used in the formation of the ancient harp or lyre which 

 was originally constructed by attaching strings or wires 

 to the carapace of one of these marine reptiles. Ronde- 

 letus mentions that the ancients procured the turtle from 

 Arcadia which is situated on the sandy shores of the 

 Gulf of Arcadia, where these turtles lay their eggs, but 

 Cuvicr and other modern writers discredit this statement, 

 as it is said that the turtle used was procured from the 

 groves or woods of Arcadia, also that the back of this 

 turtle with its seven sharp ridges was likened to a harp 

 with the strings attached which gave it the name of 

 Luth. It is said that the flesh is coarse and offensive, 

 but that the Carthusian monks will eat no other turtle. 

 In the Encyclopedia Brittanica I find the following ac- 



