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THE LOGGERHEAD TURTLE, OR CAOUANE. 



This species is remarkable for having no horny plates, the bones of the carapace and 

 plastron being covered with a strong leathery skin, smooth in the adult animal, but 

 covered with tubercles in the young. Along the back run seven ridges, sharp, and 

 slightly toothed in the full-grown Turtle, but bluntly tubercled in the young. The eye 

 is very curious, as the lids are set vertically instead of horizontally, and when the creature 

 opens and shuts its eyes, have a very singular effect. The jaws are very formidable, 

 being sharply edged, deebly scooped with three round notches in the front of the upper 

 jaw, so as to form two curved sharply-pointed teeth, and the extremity of the lower jaw 

 is strongly hooked. 



The legs of the Leathery Turtle are very long, especially the two fore limbs, which, 

 in a specimen measuring eight feet in total length, were nearly' three feet long, and 

 more than nine inches wide. The feet are not furnished with claws, but the toes have 

 a little horny scale at their tips, which take the place of the claws. The general color 

 of this animal is dark brown, with pale yellow spots, but sometimes the skin is irreg- 

 ularly pied with black and white. 



LUTH, OR LEATHERY TURTLE.- Sphargb coriicea. 



ANOTHER well-known species of Turtle deserves a passing notice. This is the 

 LOGGERHEAD TURTLE, or CAOUANE (Caouana caretta): sometimes called the RHINOCEROS 

 TURTLE. 



This fine species has a wide range of locality, being found in the most warm seas. It 

 is extremely powerful, fierce, and voracious, biting with great force, and cutting hard 

 substances without much difficulty. According to Catesby, " the Loggerhead Turtles 

 are the boldest and most voracious of all other Turtles. Their flesh is rank and little 

 sought for, which occasions them to be more numerous than any other kind. They range 

 the ocean over, an instance of which, among many others that I have known, happened 

 the zoth of April, 1725, in latitude 300 north, when our boat was hoisted out, and a 

 Loggerhead Turtle struck, as it was sleeping on the surface of the water. 



This by our reckoning, appeared to be midway between the Azores and the Bahama 

 Islands, either of which places being the nearest land it could have come from, or that 



