693 A. H. Verrilli— The Bermuda Islands. 281 
though it seems that formerly they were not uncommonly found of 
similar sizes. Therefore, it is not improbable that the huge turtles 
mentioned as found breeding at the Bermudas by the early writers, 
quoted above, were really green turtles that had lived here unmo- 
lested to a great age and large size. 
In proof of this, Lieut. Nelson records the finding of huge skeletons 
of sea turtles, nine feet long and seven feet broad, in the sand dunes. 
(See under: Geology, Part 1V.) These may well have been the bones 
of large green turtles, killed by the early settlers for food. 
Figure 47.—Green Turtle. Figure 48.—Hawksbill. 
In the West Indies adult turtles, not of the largest size, will lay 
three or four lots of eggs, or sometimes five, at intervals of 14 or 15 
days, with about 75 to 200 eggs in each lot, making a new nest each 
time. The total number might, therefore, be 500 to 1000. Thus 
the number of eggs, mentioned by Strachy as contained in those 
large turtles, may not have been exaggerated. The eggs hatch in 
six to eight weeks, according to the temperature, and the young take 
to the water at once.* 
The Green Turtle is peculiar in feeding chiefly on a vegetable 
diet, while the others are partly or mainly carnivorous. This species 
is particularly fond of the roots and crown or base of the “turtle 
grass” or eel-grass (Zostera marina), which grows in shallow water; 
but it will also eat various succulent sea-weeds,t and does not object 
to a certain amount of animal food. In confinement they will eat 
fish of any kind. 
They have now become rather shy and wary, so that their cap- 
ture, even in large seines, requires considerable skill and patience. 
eo The v very young turtles are devoured in large numbers by various pirds and 
fishes, and doubtless also by the, hawksbill and other sea-turtles. Sharks are 
fond of them, even when eight to twelve inches in diameter. 
+ Mr. True mentions that the stomach of one taken at Noank, Conn., in 1874 
was full of Irish Moss (Chondrus crispus), a very succulent and nutritious sea- 
weed, abundant on the rocks of the New England coast, just below ordinary 
low tides. This would make an excellent food for fattening these turtles in 
confinement. 
