26 CHELONIA MYDAS. 



Caretta esculenta, Merrem, Versuch eines Syst. tier Amphib., p. IS. 



Caretta mydas, Fitzinger, Neue Class, der Rcpl., p. 44. 



Chelonia mydas, Gray, Synops. Rept., p. 52. 



Chelonia mydas, Dumeril et Bibron, Hist. Nat. des Kept., torn. ii. p. 538. 



Green Turtle, Vidgo. 



Description. The shell is sub-cordiform, broader in front, narrower and slightly 

 notched and serrated behind. Above the neck the anterior margin of the shell is 

 curved inwards, and over the anterior extremities on each side is a similar curva- 

 ture, but less distinct, and the whole is covered with thirteen vertebral and lateral 

 plates. The anterior vertebral plate is irregularly hexagonal, broad before, narrow 

 behind, with a notch in its posterior margin; the second is narrow, hexagonal, with 

 projecting lateral angles, its posterior border slightly concave, and its anterior 

 with a pointed angle that is received into the first vertebral plate; the third and 

 fourth are also hexagonal, with similar lateral angles, and with their anterior 

 borders but slightly rounded; the fifth is irregularly heptagonal, broader below, 

 narrow and prolonged above. The first lateral plate is irregularly quadrilateral, 

 rounded in front and below; the second and third are quadrilateral, and so is the 

 fourth, regularly, but smaller. There are twenty-five marginal plates; the nuchal, 

 or intermediate, is irregularly quadrilateral, its posterior margin twice the extent 

 of the anterior, which is arched inwards; the first marginal is small and triangular, 

 with its basis before and apex behind, truncate, and joined by a short border to 

 the anterior vertebral; the second marginal is elongated-pentagonal, and passes in 

 above the first to the anterior vertebral; the remaining marginal plates are very 

 regularly quadrilateral to the eleventh, which is pentagonal, and the twelfth, or 

 supra-caudal, is of trapezoid form. 



The sternum is long, oval, broad, entire, full and rounded before, full and entire 

 but smaller behind. The inter-gular plate is a small, equilateral triangle, with its 

 basis before; the gular are isosceles triangles, with their bases forwards and out- 

 wards; the brachial are elongated-quadrilateral, narrowest within; the thoracic 

 are large, broad, and hexagonal, with their three shortest borders external; the 



