3G8 Order Ghelonia. [No. 4, 



deposited about a hundred eggs, when she was surprised by a number 

 of Burmese fishermen, who had been lying in ambush near the spot 

 (a favourite resort of the common Turtle, Chelonia virgata), and, after 

 a desperate struggle, was secured. 



The strength, aided of course by the enormous weight, of the 

 animal, was such, that she dragged six men endeavouring to stop 

 her, down the slope of the beach, almost into the sea, when she was 

 overpowered by increased numbers, lashed to some strong poles, and 

 brought into the village by ten to twelve men at a time. 



Being desirous of taking an accurate drawing of the Turtle, I was 

 puzzled for some time how to induce her to sit for her portrait, as 

 she was very restless, and, in her endeavours to scramble away, upset 

 any moderate number of people that tried to stop her. At last, I 

 had her slung with slings, as they hoist a water-butt on board a 

 ship, from the branch of a tree, and then, with a guy or tripping line, 

 from the tree to the caudal extremity of her shell, to prevent her 

 slewing round, she hung quite motionless. 



The description, in Dumeril and Bibron, of Spliargis coriacea is so 

 minute and accurate, and applicable to the present specimen, that it 

 would be mere repetition, were I to add, here, the notes which I took of 

 the animal. I will merely mention the points in which it differs from 

 the details given by the above authors. The principal one of which is 

 the colour; due allowance being made for the specimens described in the 

 Paris Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, having been more or less faded. 



The colour of the animal, now under notice, while still alive, and 

 fresh from the sea, was a plain blackish neutral tint, extending all 

 over the carapax, crown, nucha, upper half of tail, and outer face of the 

 paddles. The whole being dabbed over with white spots, of irregular 

 shape, like little patches of white-wash. The seven tuberculous longi- 

 tudinal ridges of the carapax were also whitish. All of the under-parts, 

 including the sternal and abdominal shields, and the inner sides of 

 the paddles, pale flesh-colour, blotched and spotted with pale blackish 

 neutral, which, on the sternum, take the form of three longitudinal 

 bands on each side of the mesial suture, with h'regular edges and spotted 

 intervals. The white spots, on the head, have a fleshy tinge. Throat 

 reddish flesh-colour, marbled pale blackish ; iris burnt umbre-brown. 



Dumeril and Bibron's adult subject is described, as having the 

 carapax " un bran marron" which, I should translate, as " castaneous- 



