84 



TORTOISES AND TURTLES. 



Habits. 



there are usually two claws to each paddle, one of these frequently disappears in 

 the adult. In colour, the adult is brown above, and yellowish beneath ; but the 

 young is uniformly dark brown or blackish. The Mexican loggerhead ( T. kempi), 

 from the Gulf of Mexico, differs in having a median ridge on the bone of each jaw, 

 whereas in the ordinary species such ridges are confined to the investing horny 

 sheath. According to Mr. Gosse, loggerheads feed on cuttles and other molluscs, 

 their powerful beaks enabling them to crush strong conch-shells as easily as a man 

 can crack a nut. 



Apart from the difference in their food, all turtles appear to be 

 similar in their general mode of life, never leaving the sea except for 

 the purpose of laying their eggs, and then shuffling along in an awkward, ungainly 

 manner. During the laying season they resort to low sandy coasts, especially 

 unfrequented tropical islands, in vast numbers ; and if once turned on their backs, 



while on shore, are unable to 

 right themselves again. This 

 habit of resorting to the land 

 to lay their eggs clearly proves, 

 it may be observed, the descent 

 of turtles from fresh - water 

 members of the order. Writing 

 of the green turtles at Aldabra, 

 one of the Seychelles group of 

 islands, Mr. Spurs remarks that 

 the males permanently frequent 

 the bay of that island, the 

 females when they attain full 

 maturity (twenty or twenty- 

 five years) disappearing alto- 

 gether. When the latter come 

 to the shore for the purpose of 

 laying, their shells are covered 

 with barnacles of two or three weeks' growth. Commercially, the females are 

 more valuable than the males, and, as they are more easily captured, the proportion 

 found on the island is one female to every ten males, although, for one of the 

 latter, about ten of the former sex are hatched. Turtles generally come ashore 

 on fine moonlight nights, displaying great caution in landing, and then generally 

 uttering a loud hissing noise which serves to disperse many of their enemies. Once 

 landed, the female turtle, writes Audubon, " proceeds to form a hole in the sand, 

 which she effects by removing it from under her body with her hind-flippers, 

 scooping it out with so much dexterity that the sides seldom, if ever, fall in. The 

 sand is raised alternately with each nipper, as with a large ladle, until it has 

 accumulated behind her, when, supporting herself with her head and forepart on 

 the ground fronting her body, she, with a spring from each nipper, sends the sand 

 around, scattering it to the distance of several feet. In this manner the hole is dug 

 to the depth of eighteen inches, or sometimes more than two feet. This labour I 

 have seen performed in the short space of nine minutes. The eggs are then 



YOUNG LOGGERHEAD TURTLE. 



