= 
year 1752, a Green Turtle, six feet long, and weighing nine hundred 
118 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS.— CLASS III. REPTILIA. 
pounds, stranded near Dieppe; and in 1778, another, seven feet long, on 
the coast of Languedoc. One taken on the coast of Cornwall, in July, 
1755, measured, from the tip of the nose to the end of the shell, six feet 
nine inches, and the weight was supposed to be nearly eight hundred pounds. 
These few examples show us that the turtles rank among the larger inhabit- 
ants of the ocean, although they are far from attaining the fabulous propor- 
tions assigned to them by Pliny (who makes the Indians use their shells as 
boats or roofs), or the enormous size of some colossal, extinet species, such 
as the fossil tortoise from the Sirvala Hills, preserved in the East Indian 
Museum, which measures twelve feet in length. They live almost con- 
stantly at sea on shell-fish, like the fieree Loggerhead Turtle (C. caretia), 
partly on sea-grass, like the Green Turtle (C. nédas), and only go on 
shore during the warmest months of the year for the purpose of laying their 
coos, 
Chelonia Nidas. —The Edible, or Green Turtle. The shell of this spe~ 
cies is distinguished by its greenish scales, to the number of thirty, the 
medial of which are disposed in almost regular hexagons. The Green 
Turtle attains a length of six or seven feet, and a weight of seven or eight 
hundred pounds. The flesh is much esteemed, Green Turtle soup being 
regarded as a prime luxury by epicures; but the shell is not valuable. It 
feeds in great troops upon the a/ge, in the depths of the ocean, and ap- 
proaches the mouths of rivers to respire. It deposits its eggs in the sand, 
where the sun may warm them. They are very numerous, and are consid- 
ered very delicate as food. 
C’. Maculosa, an allied species, has the middle plates twice as long as 
wide, and of a fulvous color, marked with large black spots. Another 
neighboring species, C. Lachrymata, has plates, as in the preceding one, 
but raised into a base posteriorly, with black splashes upon the fulvous. 
The scales of both of these are used in manufactures. 
Prince Maximilian, of Neuwied, furnishes the following interesting de- 
scription, in his instructive work, entitled Travels through the Brazils :— 
“We followed the monotonous sea-coast (our two soldiers, a neero 
and an Indian), frequently stopping to dig turtle eggs out of the sand, 
which, boiled in sea water, used to form our evening repast. Once, while 
they were busy gathering drift wood for cooking, we found, but a small dis- 
tance from our fire, an enormous turtle, busy laying her eggs. We could not 
possibly have met with anything more agreeable; the creature seemed to 
have crawled there for the express purpose of providing for our supper. 
Our presence did not discompose her in the least ; she allowed herself to be 
touched, and even raised from the ground, for which purpose four men were 
