TURTLE. 



305 



flattened, a form well adapted to admit of rapid movement through the 

 water. 



Turtles feed principally upon marine plants, and only leave the sea to lay 

 their eggs. They swim with great facility, and are sometimes met with seve- 

 ral hundred miles from land, floating on the surface of the ocean. They 

 appear to be able to sleep in this way, and they also dive very well. At the 

 laying season they leave their habitual haunts and resort to the shores of some 

 desert island, to deposit their eggs in holes which they dig in the sand. 

 During the night they drag themselves on to the beach beyond the line of 

 high tide, and with their fore fins excavate a cavity about two feet deep, 

 wherein they deposit their eggs in regular ranges, and cover them with sand 



FIG. 333. LEATHER-BACKED TURTLE. 



so carefully as scarcely to leave the smallest trace of their labour. This 

 operation accomplished, they return to the sea. The number of their eggs is 

 very considerable, sometimes as many as two hundred, and the laying is re- 

 peated two or three times a year. In about fifteen or twenty days the eggs 

 are hatched, and the young, as yet quite soft and shelless, immediately make 

 for the water ; but, before reaching it, they often become the prey of carni- 

 vorous birds, that seem to await the moment of their birth to feast upon them. 

 They have also to dread voracious fishes and crocodiles, so that comparatively 

 few escape from their numerous enemies. 



The tortoise-shell, so much valued on account of its high polish, semi- 

 transparency, and richly-clouded colours, is obtained from the plates covering 

 the frack of the Hawksbill Turtle (Chdone imbricate), of \vhich a figure is 

 appended (Fig. 332). The flesh of this species is not valued ; but there is 

 another (Chelone mydas), belonging to the same family, so highly esteemed 

 for the delicacy of its flavour, that great numbers are annually imported from 



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