TURTLES. 197 



Still another is the hawk-bill or tortoise-shell tiartle [Eret- 

 mochelys imbricata), the plates of whose sliell is an article 

 of commerce. The green-turtle of the West Indies weighs 

 from two hundred to three hundred pounds, and is used 

 for making delicious soups and steaks, being caught at 

 night when laying its eggs on sandy shores. All the fore- 

 going species have large, flat, broad flippers or fin-like 

 limbs, while in the pond and river turtles the feet are 

 webbed and the toes distinct. A very ferocious species is 

 the common soft-shelled turtle {A spidonectes spinifer), 

 whose shell is covered witli a thick leathery skin. It is 

 carnivorous, voracious, living in shallow muddy water, 

 throwing itself forward upon small animals forming its 

 prey. The snupping-turtle (Chelydra serpentina) some- 

 times becomes five feet long; its ferocity is well-known; the 

 flesh makes an excellent soup. 



The terrapins belong to the genus Pseudsmys; the pretty 

 painted turtle {Ohrysetnys picta) is common in the Eastern 

 States, while the Naneniys guttaius, or spotted tortoise, is 

 black, spotted with orange. In the land tortoises the feet 

 are short and stumpy. Tlie Tesfiido Indica of India is 

 three feet in length. The great land tortoises of the Gala- 

 pagos Islands, the Mascarine Islands (Mauritius and Rod- 

 riguez), and also of the Aldabra Islands, lying northwest 

 of Madagascar, are in some cases colossal in size, the shells 

 being nearly two metres (six feet) in length. The fierce 

 Mascarine species wore contemporaries of the dodo and 

 solitaire, and are now extinct. 



The turtles lay their eggs in sand on the shores of ponds 

 and rivers. In the Middle and New England States nearly 

 all the turtles lay their eggs on or about June 10th, the 

 eggs being hatched late in the summer. Turtles do not lay 

 eggs until eleven to thirteen years old. 



Tlie land tortoises, as probably all turtles, are long-lived, 

 and often reach a great age. White, in his "Natural His- 

 tory of Selborne," relates tliat one was kept in a vilhige till 

 it was supposed to be 100 yeai's old. 



