THE LEATHERY TURTLE. 185 



shell, and ten feet four inches from the extre- 

 mities of the fore fins extended. 



Shaw mentions a specimen taken on the 

 French coast, in the month of August, 1729, 

 about three leagues from Nantz, not far from the 

 mouth of the Loire, ' ' and which measured seven 

 feet one inch in length, three feet seven inches 

 in breadth, and two feet in thickness. It is said 

 to have uttered a hideous noise when taken, so 

 that it might be heard to the distance of a 

 quarter of a league ; its mouth at the same time 

 foaming with rage, and exhaling a noisome 

 vapour." * The bellowing noise made by the 

 members of this genus led to the adoption 

 of the generic name, which is derived from 

 the Greek o-^a/otryew, "to make a noise in the 

 throat." 



The turtle so essential to the comfort of an 

 alderman is not this species. More than one kind 

 is regarded as very good eating, but the true 

 Green Turtle is Chelonia My das. It is said that 

 the Leathery Turtle is positively injurious. Pen- 

 nant narrates an instance in his " Appendix to 

 British Zoology :"" The late Bishop of Carlisle 

 informed me that a tortoise was taken off the 

 coast of Scarborough in 1748 or 1749. It was 

 purchased by a family at that time there, and a 



* Shaw's " General Zoology," vol. iv. part i. p. 78. 



