184/.] Malayan Peninsula and Islands. 617 



Length of the head, feet 6 inch. 



Ditto ditto neck, 5 



Ditto ditto shell, 3 1 



Ditto ditto tail, 4 



FAM. THALASSIB.E, OR TURTLES, Bum. and Bibr. 

 Gen. Chelonia, Brogniart. 

 Body covered with horny plates ; fins with one or two nails. 



Sub-Gen. Chelonia liberoe (Chelonees /ranches). Bum. and Bibr. 



Discal shields 13, not imbricate ; muzzle short, rounded ; upper jaw 



slightly notched in front, toothed on the sides ; lower jaw formed of 



three pieces, and with the edges deeply toothed ; the first finger of each 



fin nailed. 



Chelonia virgata, Schweigger. 



Syn.— Turtle of the Red Sea, Bruce. 



Chelonia virgata, apud Cuvier, Guerin, Dumeril and Bibron, Gray : 



Catal. 

 Chelonia midas, Var. D. Gray. 

 Chelonia fasciata, Cuvier, apud Schlegel. 

 " Pinyu" of the Malays of Pinang. 



Young. — Head, shell and fins greenish black ; margin of the shell 

 and fins and sternum white. 



Adult. — Head and fins chestnut, scales edged with yellow ; shell 

 greenish yellow with chestnut rays and spots ; sternum gamboge, or 

 greenish yellow. 

 Habit. — Malayan Seas. 



TenerifTe, Rio Janeiro, Cape of Good Hope, New York, Indian 

 Ocean, Red Sea. 



This species is at all seasons plentifully taken in fishing stakes in 

 the straits of Malacca, and is the " Green Turtle" of the European 

 inhabitants of our Malayan settlements, and of the sea-ports of In- 

 dia. In size it equals Chelonia midas y Schweigger, which it rivals in 

 flavour. About December and January is the season when the female 

 deposits her eggs in the sandy beach of some sequestered island, and 

 then the fishermen watch during the moonlight nights to " turn 

 turtles." The eggs are of a spherical shape, about one inch in dia- 

 meter, covered by a soft hemitransparent membrane of a pale yellow 

 colour. The expert eye of the fishermen baffles the pains with which 

 the turtle conceals her eggs, and prodigious numbers are disinterred. 



1 l 2 



