if 
THE HAWKSBILL TURTLE. 419 
hard, but often of a soft consistency, and their broad feet with the toes 
webbed as far the claws. 
The CHICKEN TORTOISE is found in North America. 
It is very common in ponds, lakes, or marshy grounds, and though very 
plentiful, and by no means quick in its movements, is not easily caught, owing 
to its extreme wariness. : 
The Chicken Tortoise swims well, but not rapidly, andas it passes along 
with its head and neck elevated above the surface, it looks so like the dark 
water-snake of the same country, that at a little distance it might readily be 
mistaken for that reptile. 
I have kept several of these reptiles, and found no difficulty in preserving 
them in health. They lived in a tank in which were several large stones that 
projected above the surface of the water. On the top of these stones the 
Chicken Tortoises loved to sit, and so exactly did their bodies harmonize 
with the stones, that it was not easy to decide at a hasty glance whether the 
stones were bare or covered with the little Tortoises. At first, the least 
mov.ment or sound would send them tumbling into the water, but after a 
while they became used to captivity, and would even teed out of the hand 
CHICKEN TORTOISE.—(Zmys vreticularia.) 
Their diet consisted of meat, either raw or cooked. They used to seize it in 
their mouths, and then, placing a foot on its side, push away the meat, so as 
to cut a piece completely out with their sharp edged jaws. They will even 
seize fish and serve them in like manner, and indeed it is not safe to place 
them in tanks wherein are any other living creatures. 
It is rather a small species, seldom exceeding ten inches in length. Its 
flesh is remarkably excellent, very tender and delicately flavoured, something 
like that of a young chicken, so that this Tortoise is in great request as an 
article of food, and is largely sold in the markets, though not so plentifully 
as the common salt-water terrapin. Its colour is dark brown above. and the 
flates are scribbled with yellow lines, and wrinkled longitudinally. The 
neck is long in proportion to the size of the animal, so long indeed that the 
head and neck together are almost as long as the shell. The lower jaw is 
hooked in front. 
THE well-known CARET, or HAWKSBILL TURTLE, so called from the forma- 
tion of the mouth, is a native of the warm American and Indian seas, and is 
common in many of the islands of those oceans. 
, The Hawksbill Turtle is the animal which furnishes the valuable “ tortoise- 
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