ICHTHYOLOGY. 69 



Q. How are these Turtles usually taken ? 



A. Sometimes they are watched on shore, wlien 

 the men immediately hasten to turn them on their 

 backs, as they cannot get again on their feet, and 

 then carry them off at their leisure* Some are so 

 large as to require three men to turn one of them. 

 At the Bahama islands they pierce them with a 

 kind of spear. 



Q. Do these Turtles occasionally reside on land? 



A. Marine Turtles never go on shore except to 

 deposit their eggs, which they do in a hole in the 

 sand ; these eggs are eagerly sought after, as they 

 are delicious eating. 



Q. What is the Caretta ? 



A. Testudo Caretta, or the Loggerhead Turtle, 

 resembles the Mydas in form (except that its head 

 is larger), and the Coriacea in size ; it is the bold- 

 est and most voracious of all turtles, fiercely de- 

 fending itself when attacked. It has been known 

 to bite a large walking stick in two instantaneously. 

 Its flesh is rank and in no esteem. 



Q. What is the Imbricata ? 



A. Testudo Imbricata *, or Hawk's Bill Turtle, 

 receives its classical name from the resemblance 

 of its shell to the tiles of a house, and its common 

 appellation from the likeness of its back to the bill 

 of that bird. This is the only animal of the kind 



* From imbrex, a tile. 



