TESTUDO, 
7 $6 
having been figured in no work of natural 
history till it was introduced into Mr. Seho- 
epf’s publication. It is a native of North 
America, where it inhabits stagnant waters, 
growing to the weight of fifteen or twenty 
pounds, and even more, and preying on fish, 
ducklings, &c. Ac. seizing its prey with great 
force, stretching out its neck and hissing at 
the same time. Whatever it seizes in its 
mouth it ho! els with great force, and will suf- 
fer itself to he raised up by a stick rather than 
quit its hold. The beau is large, depressed, 
triangular, and covered with a scaly and 
warty skin : the orbits of the eyes are oblique ; 
the mouth wide ; the mandibles sharp ; the 
neck covered by scaly warts, and appearing 
short and thick when the animal is at rest, 
but when in the act of springing on its prey, 
is stretched out to a third part of the length 
of the shell: the toes of all the feet are dis- 
tinct, but connected by a web; and are five 
in number on the fore feet, and four on the 
hind ; all armed with claws longer than the 
toes themselves : the tail is straight, and about 
two-thirds the length of the shell ; it is com- 
pressed, attenuated, and crested on the upper 
part with sharp bony scales directed backwards 
and gradually decreasing to the tip, while the 
sides and under part are covered with smaller 
scales: the under part of the body is covered 
by a loose, wrinkled skin, beset with smallish 
soft scales and granules : the shell is slightly 
depressed, of an oval form, and consists of 
thirteen pieces in the disk, each of which rises 
behind into akindof projection or obtuse point, 
and is pretty strongly radiated and furrowed 
in different directions ; the general colour of 
the whole is a dull chesnut-brown, lighter or 
paler beneath. 
This animal conceals itself in muddy wa- 
ters in such a manner as to leave out only apart 
of its back, like a stone or other inanimate 
object, by which means it the . more easily 
obtains its prey. Mr. Pennant, in the sup- 
plement to his Arctic Zoology, mentions this 
as a new species, under the name of serrated 
tortoise. In New York it is known by the ti- 
tle of the snapping tortoise. Linnaeus seems 
to have been mistaken in supposing it a native 
of China. 
Sea-tortoises, or turtles . 
The marine tortoises, or turtles as they are 
commonly called, are distinguished from those 
of the preceding division by their very large 
and long fin-shaped feet, in which are inclosed 
the bones of the toes ; the first and second 
alone on each foot being furnished with visible 
or projecting claws, the others not appearing 
beyond the edge. The shield, as in the land- 
tortoises, consists of a strong bony covering, 
jn which are imbedded the ribs, and which is 
coated externally by hard horny plates, in 
one or two species much thicker or stronger 
than those of the land-tortoises. 
1 . Testudo coriacea, coriaceous turtle. Of 
all the marine tortoises this appears to grow to 
the largest size, having been sometimes seen of 
the length of eight feet, and of the weight of a 
thousand pounds. It differs from the rest of 
its tribe in the form of its body, which is longer 
in proportion, and still more in its external 
covering, which, instead of being of a horny 
jiature, as in others, is of a substance resem- 
bling strong leather, marked over the whole 
surface into small, obscurely subhexagonal 
and pentagonal subdivisions or lineations, j 
which do not take away from the general 
smoothness ©f the surface. Along the whole 
length of this covering or leathery shield run 
live distinct, strongly prominent, tubercu- 
lated ribs or ridges; and indeed if those 
which border the sides are taken into the ac- 
count, we may say there are seven ridges on the 
shield. There is no under or thoracic shell, 
so that the animal might form a distinct genus 
from the rest of the tortoise tribe. The head 
is large, and the upper mandible notched at 
the tip in such a manner as to give the appear- 
ance of two large teetii or processes, between 
which, when the mouth is closed, is received 
the tip of the lower mandible. The fins or 
legs are large and long, and covered with a 
tough leathery skin : the tail is rather short 
and sharp-pointed. The general colour of 
the whole animal is dusky brown, paler be- 
neath. r i his singular species is a native of the 
Mediterranean sea, and has at different pe- 
riods been taken on the coasts both of France 
and England. In the month of August, in 
the year 1 729, a specimen was taken about 
three leagues from Nantz, not fai from the 
mouth of the river Loire, and which mea- 
sured seven feet one inch in length, three 
feet seven inches in breadth, and two feet in 
thickness. It is said to have uttered a hideous 
noise when taken, so that it might be heard 
to the distance of a quarter of a league ; its 
mouth at the same time foaming with rage, 
and exhaling a noisome vapour. In the year 
1778, a specimen was taken on the coast of 
Languedoc, which measured seven feet five 
inches in length. In July, 1756, one was 
taken on the coast of Cornwall, which, accord- 
ing to Dr. Borlace, “ measured six feet nine 
inches from the tip of the nose to the end of 
the shell ; ten feet four inches from the extre- 
mities of the fore fins extended ; and was ad- 
judged to weigh eight hundred pounds 
weight.” The fine specimen lately in the 
Leverian Museum was of similar weight, and 
was taken on the coast of Dorsetshire. 
This species is found not only in the Euro- 
pean seas, but in those of South America also, 
and occasionally appears about some of the 
African coasts. 
According to Cepede, the coriaceous tor- 
toise is one of those with which the Greeks 
were well acquainted, and he supposes it to 
have been the species particularly used in the 
construction of the antientlyre or harp, which 
was at first composed by attaching the strings 
or wires to the shell of some marine tortoise. 
We may add, that the ribs or prominences on 
the back of the shell bear an obscure resem- 
blance to the strings of a harp, and may have 
suggested the name of luth or lyre, by which 
it is called among the French, exclusive ©f 
the use to which the shell was antiently ap- 
plied. 
The coriaceous tortoise, says Mr. Pennant, 
is reputed to be extremely fat, but the flesh 
coarse and bad : the Carthusians, however, 
wiil eat no other species. 
It may be added, that the small seador- 
toise described by Mr. Pennant, in the Phi- 
losophical Transactions for the year 1771, is 
evidently no other than the young of this ani- 
mal. See Plate Nat. Hist. fig. 395.. f 
2. Testudo mydas. The green turtle, 
so named, not on account of its being exter- 
nally of that colour, but from the green tinge 
which its fat frequently exhibits when the ani- 
mal is taken in its highest state of perfection,- j 
may be considered as one of the largest of | 
this genus, often measuring above five feet in j 
length, and weighing more than five or six i 
hundred pounds. Its shell is of a somewhat } 
heart-shaped form, or pointed at the extre- j 
mity, and consists of thirteen dorsal segments | 
or divisions surrounded by twenty-five mar- | 
ginal pieces. Its colour is a dull palish-brown, f 
more or less variegated with deeper undula- j 
tions, but not exhibiting those strong and beau- | 
tiful colours which so peculiarly distiguish ] 
that of the T. imbvicata, or hawk’s-bill turtle, j 
which affords the tortoise-shell used for orna-» 
mental purposes and in various manufactures, 
having neither sufficient strength nor beauty ; 
but so much is the flesh esteemed, that the 
inhabitants of the West Indian islands have 
long considered it as one of the most excellent 
articles of food,, and have gradually succeed- 
ed in introducing a similar taste among some 
of the European nations. In our own country 
in particular it is in the highest estimation*, 
and is regularly imported in considerable 
quantities to supply the luxury of the metro- 
polis. The introduction of the green turlje 
as an article of luxury into England is of lift 
very distant date, and perhaps can hardly be 
traced much farther than about fifty or sixty 
years backward. In reality, so little was the na- 
ture of the sea-tortoises understood by the 
Europeans before that period, that the differ- 
ent kinds were in general confounded by na- 
vigators, whose accounts relative to their cha- 
racter as a food varied according to the spe- 
cies which they happened to take for that pur- 
pose; some insisting that the turtle was a 
coarse and unpalatable diet, while others con- 
sidered it as of the highest degree of excel- 
lence. 
“ Of the sea-turtles,” says Cate shy, “ the 
most in request is the green turtle, which is 
esteemed a most wholesome and delicious 
food. It receives its name from the fat, which 
is of a green colour. Sir Hans Sloane in- 
forms us, in his History of Jamaica, that forty 
sloops are employed by the inhabitants of 
Port Royal, in Jamaica, for the catching them.. 
The markets are there supplied wfith turtle 
as ours are with butcher’s meat. The Baha- 
mians carry many of them to Carolina, where 
they turn to good account ; not because that 
plentiful country wants provisions, but they 
are esteemed there as a rarity, and for the 
delicacy of their flesh. They feed on a kind 
of grass, growing at the bottom of the sea,; 
commonly called turtle-grass. The inbabit-i 
ants of the Bahama islands, by often practice, 
are very expert at catching turtles, particu-* 
larly the green turle. In April they go, in 
little boats, to Cuba and other neighbouring 
islands, where, in the evening, especially in 
moonlight nights, they watch the going and 
returning of the turtle to and from their nests, 
at which time they turn them on their backs, 
where they leave them, and proceed on, turn- 
ing all they meet; for they cannot get on 
their feet again when once turned. Some 
are so large that it requires three men to turn 
one of them. The way by which the turtle 
are most commonly taken at the Bahama is- 
lands is- by striking them with a small iron 
peg of two inches long, put in a socket, ai 
the end of a staff of twelve feet long. Twc 
men usually set out for this work in a littW 
light boat or canoe, one to row gently an.c 
steer the boat, while the other stands "at tD 
