INFANT TURTLES. 



33 



straight for the sea. Once arrived there, these miniature 

 turtles scurry away in all directions, but always over the 

 surface of the water, for, strangely enough, at this stage 

 of their existence they cannot dive. 



This is the last that the islanders see of them. How 

 long it is before they are able to dive, like their grown-up 

 relations, is apparently unknown. Neither is it known, 

 I beUeve, what constitutes their food at this early stage, 

 but it is very probable that they live on the minute algae 

 and animalculse, with which the surface of the sea swarms 

 in early summer, or that they may even scrape the rocks for 

 their coating of Nullipores. The infant mortaUty * at this 

 period of the turtles' existence must be enormous. They 

 are literally between the deep sea and the devil, if we 

 may imagine the devil on this occasion in the guise of 

 the frigate-bird, with its black body and huge outstretched 

 -wdngs. The frigate-bird, according to the " laird," is as 

 fond of infant turtles as an alderman is of turtle soup, 

 and what with these avian epicures above and the 

 many carnivorous fish below, these youngsters must have 

 but a sorry time of it. 



The " laird's " second son, who has taken a medical 

 degree at one of the leading American Universities, told 

 me that he had constantly watched turtles coming ashore 

 to lay their eggs. This they do three, if not four, times 

 a year. The breeding season lasts from about the end 

 of April until July. The question of a suitable site for 

 a nest is apparently a matter of some careful deliberation. 

 The lady turtle, or " hen " as she is called, does not rush 

 ashore and blindly dig a hole in the first convenient slope 

 of sand she lands on, but she will probably choose three 

 or four places and commence digging at each, before finally 

 settling on a spot which suits her. Having made up her 

 mind on the question of the mere selection of a suitable 



* Mr. Wood Jones in *♦ Corals and Atolls *' (p. 330) says that in the 

 Cocos Keeling Islands a repulsive looking eel {Ophichthys cohibrinus, 

 var. annulata), which is boldly banded with black and white and 

 lives in the sand of the lagoon, is very fond of young turtles, which it 

 destroys in large numbers. 



C 



