150 NATUEAL HISTOKY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS 



The Hawk's-bill as food. — The flesh of the Hawk'sbill Turtle is comparatively value- 

 less; indeed, in the West Indies it is said that it possesses cathartic qualities in a high degree. 

 The Turtle is occasionally brought to our markets from North Carolina. I have seeu it in 

 Washington several times recently, both in the markets and before certain restaurants of the city. 

 The eggs are not inferior to those of other Marine Turtles, and are valuable both as food and as 

 the source of a limpid and not ill-flavored oil, which is used in cookery and in the arts. 



37. THE GREEN TURTLES. 



North Ambeican species. — The two species ot Green Turtle, the one, 0. mydas, inhabiting 

 the Atlantic and the other, 0. virgata, the Pacific Ocean, like the two Hawk's-bill Turtles, are very 

 similar in general aspect, and have been confounded by many observers. The Atlantic species, 

 however, has been most often described and commented upon, and it is to that species that most 

 of my remarks will refer. 



Names. — As far as known, the Green Turtle has no other popular name in the United States 

 or in England. In Prance it is called the "Tortue Pranche," in Portugal the "Tartaruga," and 

 in Brazil the " Jurucua." 



Distribution. — The Atlantic species occurs all along our coast, from Long Island Sound, 

 where it has been taken several times, but is not common, to Florida and the coasts of the Gulf 

 States. Captain Collins believes that he has seen this species on the northern fishing-banks. 

 It is abundant in the West Indies, and is found as far south as Guiana and Brazil; is said to 

 occur also along the west coast of Africa. I am informed by Mr. E. G. Blackford that the 

 supply for New York market is brought principally from Indian Eiver, Cedar Keys, and Key 

 West, Florida. The Pacific species is "found along the whole southern coast of California," but 

 its northern limit has not been ascertained. It is said to occur also in the Indian Ocean. 



Size. — In size the Green Turtle ranks intermediate between the Loggerhead and the Tortoise- 

 shell Turtles. Those taken on the coast of the Carolinas are very small, but the species increases 

 in size southward. The specimens taken at the more northerly localities seem to be young or 

 dwarfed individuals, as in the case of the Loggerhead. At Beaufort and Morehead City, as Mr. 

 Earll ascertained, they weigh only about eight pounds; at Charleston, usually from five to fifteen 

 pounds, the largest weighing twenty -five pounds; about Saint Augustine, the average size is 

 twenty or twenty-five pounds; at Halifax Eiver, thirty -five pounds; at Indian Eiver, fifty or sixty 

 pounds, specimens weighing as much as two hundred pounds beipg not infrequently taken; at Key 

 West the weight is usually from forty to one hundred pounds ; at Cedar Keys specimens weighing 

 from six hundred to eight hundred pounds are sometimes taken, and rarely some weighing a 

 thousand pounds. Thus it appears that there is gradual increase in size as we pass southward.^ 



Food and feeding habits.— Holbrook makes the following statements in regard to the food 

 of the Green Turtle: "The Ghelonia mydas lives mostly in deep water, feeding on marine plants, 

 especially one called turtle-grass (Zostera marina). This, according to Audubon, they cut near 

 the roots, to procure the most tender and succulent part, which alone is eaten, while the rest of 

 the plant floats to the surface, and is there collected in large fields, a sure indication that the feeding 

 ground of the Green Turtle is near. In confinement, however, they eat readily enough purslain 

 {Portulaca oleracea), and even grow fat on this nourishment." ^ A specimen taken at Noank, 

 Connecticut, in August, 1874, was full of Irish moss {Ghondrus crispus). After browsing for a 



1 This fact, wliich correspontls with what has been observed regard! ug some other auimalB, is of great interest from 

 a zoological poiut of view. 



i! Holbrook: North American Hepetology, ii, 1842, p. 29. 



