REPTILES OF BllITISlI BIEMA. 9 



snapping at every tiling witliiu its reach with pertinacious 

 ferocity. 



Sometimes, when the animal is large, or the water deep, a stake 

 is held over the animal's back and, with a few Avell-delivci'ed blows 

 of a mallet, driveu through both shells. Woe betide the limb, 

 however, whicli comes Avithin reach of the infuriated animal ! I 

 saw the top of one man's toe bitten clean off by a Trionyx Fhaj/rci 

 which was being " staked ;" and as these animals are both active 

 and ferocious, it is always advisable to send a bullet through their 

 brain as soon as possible. So tenacious of life, however, are these 

 creatures, that their heads bite vigorously after being completely 

 dissevered from their bodies. 



The natives eat all sorts indiscriminately ; and perhaps the flesh 

 of even the highly carnivorous soft Turtles may be palatable ; 

 Giinther, however, is mistaken in saying of the pond-tortoise, 

 " They are not used as food by man, the flesh of most species 

 having a very disagreeable smell " (Eep. Brit, Ind. p. 21), since, 

 Avaiving the point how far the teeming millions of Birma and 

 the adjoining regions deserve to be regarded as human, as regards 

 tlieir diet, I can from personal experience say that the flesh of 

 almost all our Emydidaj is excellent. The smell of the raw meat 

 may be nauseous, but so is the smell of fish ; but this is quite lost 

 in cooking ; and cutlets made of it are not only eatable, but delicate 

 eating. Batagur haslca is, I am credibly informed, largely used 

 for making Turtle soup in Calcutta ; and I imagine a real Turtle 

 not unfrequently in the City of Palaces enacts the role of the hair- 

 dresser's Bear,- — the actual victim, in either case, being one more 

 easily procurable. Of course the real Turtle {Chelonia virgata) 

 is brought to Calcutta, chiefly from the Straits — more frequently 

 the " Loggerhead " {Couana olivaced), Avhich abounds in the Bay of 

 Bengal ; but the humbler though still meritorious "Baska," more 

 frequently, I imagine, than either, forms the basis of the soup 

 which alike delights the gourmet of Chouringhee or of Gruildhall. 

 According to Mr. Blyth, the " Baska" is kept alive in tanks for 

 the market. In the tidal creeks of the Irawadi estuary, large 

 numbers, not only of the Baska (^Tetraonyx) are captured, but 

 also of the eminently handsome Batayur triviUata, in large baskets 

 with a falling door (something like a mousetrap) set to catch largo 

 fish. A quiet reach is selected, with a more or less sloping bank, 

 covered with grass above mid water-mark. On this bank, at or below 

 midwater-mark, these large baskets are firmly staked j and, when 



