176 OUE REPTILES. 



retired, sandy beach after sunset, and there, 

 above high-water mark, a hollow is excavated to 

 serve as a nest, in which during the night about 

 a hundred eggs are deposited. It is said that the 

 female repeats this operation three times in the 

 same season, at intervals of two or three weeks. 

 The eggs are lightly covered with sand, and left 

 to be hatched by the heat of the sun, which 

 operation is accomplished in two or three weeks. 

 The parents thenceforth take no regard of 

 their progeny. As soon as the young turtles 

 leave the egg, they seek the sea, some of them 

 falling a victim to rapacious birds during the 

 brief journey they have to perform, and many 

 others serving as a delicate morsel for predatory 

 fish as soon as they reach the water. Thus the 

 balance of life is maintained, or the surface of 

 the sea might soon be covered with floating 

 turtles. 



The eggs of the turtles are more or less 

 spherical, and are much prized as articles of 

 food. A native Brazilian will eat twenty or 

 thirty for breakfast, as they are about the size 

 of those of a "Bantam" hen. By the river 

 Amazon a large number of turtle eggs are se- 

 cured every year for the sake of turtle-oil. The 

 stratum of eggs in the sand is ascertained by a 

 pole thrust in, and the harvest of eggs is esti- 

 mated, like the produce of a well- cultivated 



