TRUNK BACK OR LEATHERY TURTLE. 91 



by the Peabody Academy of Science. Another one was 

 taken in Portland harbor July 22, 1885, and on the 

 twenty-fifth of August, 1885, Mr. Parsons of Rockport 

 caught a fine specimen of the leathery or trunk-back turtle 

 alive. This turtle was found entangled and completely 

 wound up in a mackerel net which was set in the cove 

 between the Salt Rocks and Milk Island opposite Long 

 Beach, Rockport. It was towed to shore on Long Beach, 

 where it required the efforts of eight men to load it on a 

 wagon ; it was carried to Pigeon Cove from which place 

 Mr. Parsons sent a telegram to the Peabody Academy of 

 Science announcing that he had a new species of turtle. 

 On going to Pigeon Cove the next morning, I found he 

 had caught a superb specimen of the leathery or trunk- 

 back turtle. This specimen measured 7 feet, 3 inches 

 from his nose to the end of his tail, 5 feet across the back 

 in the widest part ; his anterior flippers or arms were 3 

 feet long and 16 inches across in the widest part ; the pos- 

 terior flippers were 22 inches long and 20 inches wide. 

 The skin on his back and upper portions of the body was 

 a peculiar greenish brown color not unlike dried fucus. 

 The sides and upper parts were a creamy white blotched 

 with a bluish black. The motions of this turtle were 

 remarkably quick for so large a creature when out of its 

 natural element ; it moved around the room in which it 

 was confined, upsetting barrels, tables and the stove as 

 easily and as quickly as a Texas wild steer would have 

 done, causing a general commotion. In its struggles 

 while being secured (which was accomplished by lashing 

 the anterior flippers together on the under side) it uttered 

 a sound of great volume, an indescribable kind of noise 

 such as is heard sometimes at a menagerie. Its eyelids 

 open vertically or in the opposite direction to that of 

 other turtles. Unlike other turtles, this species cannot 



ESSEX INST. BULLKTIX, VOL. XVIII. 12 



