296 REPTILES OF BERMUDA. 
is vegetable. When in the crawls or turtle pens they are fed upon 
fishes and meats of various kinds, as are the other sorts. The princi- 
pal food of the genus (Chelonia) seems to be the sea-grass, Zostera 
marina, commonly called “Turtle Grass.” When grazing turtles eat 
the roots, and the tops of the grass rising to the surface mark the 
feeding ground and often betray them to the “turtler.” My inform- 
ant tells me the Loggerheads nip the smaller portion of the spiral from 
the large conchs, and in this way extract theanimal. Trunkbacks some- 
times exceed 1,200 pounds inweight. The largest we have been able to 
measure was close upon 7 feet in length and weighed about 1,000 pounds. 
The Green are next in size. Hight hundred and fifty pounds is the 
largest of which we can learn. The largest Loggerhead of which we 
have positive information did not exceed 450; and Mr. Kemp says a 
shell turtle weighing 160 pounds is a very large one. 
Near the haunts prices of the meats vary from 4to 10 cents per pound 
alive, and from 12 to 18 dressed. A specimen of Green Turtle weighing 
100 pounds is considered to be between three and four years of age. In 
its first year it would attain a weight of 15 to 20 pounds. ‘Turtles are 
captured by pegging, by means of long nets, and when they come on 
shore to lay. Ordinarily the creatures are timid and endeavor to escape. 
In the water it is not very difficult to follow them, as they rise from 
time to time to breathe. When tired out they go to the bottom, and 
seldom make much resistance to being hauled on board the boat or 
towed ashore by a line attached to the peg. A peg is a small steel 
instrument like a blunt nail, to which a long cord is attached, and which 
slips out of the socket in which it is placed, on the end of a long pole, 
on being struck into the shell of theturtle. Being firmly wedged by 
the bone, the peg enables the turtler to draw his prey about by the 
line attached to it. By much practice the turtlers become very dexterous 
in taking objects in the water. One who assisted me in collecting, and 
to whom Iam indebted for a great deal of information, Daniel Williams, 
of Florida Keys, did not seem to have his aim at all affected by differences 
of depths or angles in situations in which a novice would find it diffi- 
cult to strike objects of five times the size. During the mating season 
turtles are much less timid, and boats are allowed to approach quite 
near. The season varies somewhat for the different kinds. From the 
most reliable accounts it is April to June for the Green, Loggerhead, 
and Shell turtles (Hawkbill), and for Bastard and Trunkback it is De- 
cember to February (see below). Coupling takes place in the water and 
