ORDER CHELONIA. 83 



setting of the sun, but return immediately to the sea on the 

 slightest disturbance. If this is not the case, they proceed 

 above the line of the highest tide, excavate the sand with their 

 fins, and, after having made a hole of about two feet deep 

 and two wide, formed like a reversed cone, they deposit their 

 eggs there, sometimes to the number of one hundred in a single 

 night. During this labour, nothing can disturb them or dis- 

 tract their attention. At such times, they are taken with 

 great facility. 



In this manner, they lay tliree successive sets of eggs — an 

 interval of fourteen days or three weeks elapsing between each 

 set. They return to the sea, after having covered their eggs 

 with sand. 



We are told by Pere Labat, that on the coast of Africa a 

 single one of these tortoises will produce two hundred and 

 fifty eggs, and even more. 



The young are excluded generally in about three weeks, 

 though some little variation will take place according to lati- 

 tude, and the temperature of the atmosphere. The accounts 

 of authors, however, on this subject cannot be implicitly 

 relied on, as they abound in contradictions, though the above 

 may be considered the average time. 



The eggs are round, two or three inches in diameter, and 

 enveloped in a soft membrane, not unlike moistened parch- 

 ment. Their albuminous part does not coagulate in the fire, 

 but the yolk hardens very well. 



These eggs are excellent eating, and in great estimation. 



With the very young turtles, the carapace is covered 

 with a white and transparent skin, which grows brown by 

 degrees, forms transverse wrinkles, then thickens, and finally 

 is divided into scaly plates. 



' Dampier has remarked, that towards the season of laying, 

 the greater number of these turtles remove for two or three 

 months from the latitudes where they habitually reside. 



G 2 



