176 



OHELONIANS. 



harpoon is attached to a cord, by which the animal is soon 

 brought to the surface and drawn into the boat. But the com- 

 monest mode of capture is aijproaching them in a boat as they 

 float asleep on the surface — this must be done silentlj^. When 

 within reach, a back flipper is laid hold of by one of the crew, and 

 by a sudden twist the Turtle is thrown on its back, when becoming 

 helpless for the moment, it is dragged on board. 



A very curious mode of fishing for Turtle is pursued by means 

 of small fish, a species of Echeneis or Remora. These small fish 

 are provided with an oval plate on the head, which consists 

 of a score of parallel plates, forming two series, furnished on their 



C-^jXICLil^ 



Fig. 42.— Hawk'a-bill Turtle (Chdoiua caretta). 



outer edge with an oval disk, soft and fleshy at its circumference ; 

 in the middle of this plate is a complicated apparatus of bony 

 pieces dispersed across the surface, which can be moved on their axis 

 by particiilar muscles, their free edges being furnished with smaU 

 hooks, which are all raised at once like the points of a wool-card. 

 The fishermen keep many of these fishes in buckets of water. 

 When they see a sleeping Turtle they approach it, and throw one of 

 these suck-fish into the sea. The fish dives under the Turtle, and fixes 

 itself inextricably to it by means of their cephalic disk. As the fish 

 is attached to a long cord by means of a ring in its tail, the fish 



