Wad with his striker. The turtle are some- ' 
times discovered by their swimming with their 
head and back out of the water, but they are 
often discovered lying at tire bottom,' a fa- 
thom or more deep. If a turtle perceives he 
is discovered, he starts’ll p tomake his escape : 
the men in the boat pursuing him, endeavour 
to keep sight of him, which they often lose, 
and recover again by the turtle putting his 
nose out of the water to breathe : thus they 
pursue him, one padding or rowing, while the 
other stands ready with his striker. It is 
sometimes half an hour before he is tired : 
then he sinks at once to the bottom, which 
gives them an opportunity of striking him ; 
which is by piercing him with an iron peg, 
which slips out of the socket, but is fastened 
with a string to the pole. If he is spent and 
tired by being long pursued, he tamely sub- 
mits, when struck, to be taken into the boat or 
hauled ashore. There are men who by div- 
ing will get on their backs, and by pressing 
down their hind parts, and raising the fore-part 
of them by force, bring them to the top of 
the water, while another slips a noose about 
their necks.” 
Though the green turtle is a native of the 
West Indian seas, yet it is sometimes driven 
by storms out of its usual residence, and in- 
stances have occurred in which it has been ta- 
ken on the coasts of Europe. An occurrence 
of this kind is said by the count de Cepede to 
have happened in France, a turtle having been 
taken at Dieppe in the year 1752, which weigh- 
ed between eight and nine hundred pounds, 
and was almost six feet in length, and four 
wide. It may, however, be doubted whether 
this animal was not rather a caretta or log- 
gerhead, than a green turtle. Another, of 
still larger size, is also said to have been taken 
on the coa9t of France, about two years af- 
terwards. 
“ The sea-tortoises, or turtles in general,” 
says Catesby, “ never goon shore but to lay 
their eggs, which they do in April : they then 
crawl up from the sea above the flowing of 
higli water, and dig a hole above two feet 
deep in the sand, into which they drop in one 
night above a hundred eggs, at which time 
they are so intent upon nature’s work, that 
they regard none that approach them ; but 
vviJI drop their eggs into a hat, if held under 
them; but if they are disturbed before they 
begin to lay, they will forsake the place, and 
seek another. They lay their eggs at three, 
and sometimes at four different times; there 
being fourteen days between every time ; so 
that they hatch and creep from their holes in- 
to the sea at different times also. When they 
have laid their complement of eggs, they fill 
the hole with sand, and leave them to be 
hatched by the heat of the sun, which is usually 
performed in about three weeks.” It may be 
proper to add, that the eggs are about the size 
of tennis-balls, round, white, and covered 
with a smooth parchment-like skin. See Plate 
Nat. Hist. fig. 399. 
3. Testudo caretta, loggerhead turtle. This 
species exceeds in size every other yet known, 
except perhaps the coriacea. In its general ap- 
pearance it most resembles the ruydas or green 
turtle, but is distinguished by the superior 
size of the head, the proportional breadth of 
the shell, and by its deeper and more varie- 
gated colours, resembling those of the 1’. im- 
fericata, or hawk’s-bill ; but its principal mark 
TESTUDO. 
of distinction consists in the number of dorsal 
segments or scuteila of the shell, which in- 
stead of thirteen, as in other species, amount 
to fifteen ; the lateral as well as the middle 
range containing five pieces, of which the two 
superior are considerably smaller than the 
rest. The fore feet are very large and long; 
the hind feet much shorter, though broad. 
This animal inhabits the same seas with the 
green turtle, but is also diffused into very 
remote latitudes, being often found in the 
Mediterranean, and in particular about the 
coasts of Italy and Sicily. Considered in a 
commercial view, it is of little or no value ; 
the flesh being coarse and rank, and the la- 
minae or plates of the shell too thin for general 
use. It is said, however, to afford a good 
quantity of oil, which may be used for lamps, 
&c. The loggerhead turtle is a very strong 
and fierce animal, and is even dangerous; de- 
fending itself with great vigour with its legs, 
and being able to break the strongest shells and 
other substances with its month. Aldrovan- 
dus assures us, that on offering a thick walk- 
ing-stick to one which he saw publicly exhi- 
bited at Bologna, the animal bit it in two in an 
instant. 
“ The loggerhead turtles,” says Catesby, 
“ are the boldest and most voracious of 
all turtles ; their flesh is rank, and there- 
fore little sought for, which occasions them 
to be more numerous than any other kind. 
They range the ocean over, an instance of 
which, among many others that I have known, 
happened on the 20th of April, 1725, in lat. 
30 degrees north ; when our boat was hoist- 
ed out, and a loggerhead turtle struck as it 
was sleeping on the surface of the water : this 
by our reckoning, appeared to be the midway 
between the Azores and the Bahama islands ; 
either of which places being the nearest land 
it could come from, or that they are known to 
frequent ; there being none on the north con- 
tinent of America, farther north than Florida. 
It being amphibious, and yet at so great a 
distance from land in the breeding time, 
makes it the more remarkable. They feed 
mostly on shell-fish, the great strength of 
their beaks enabling them to break very large 
shells, as the large buccinumsand trochi.” 
4. Testudo imbricata, the hawk’s-bill turtle. 
The testudo imbricata is so named from the 
peculiar disposition of its scales or laminae, 
which commonly lap over each other at their 
extremities in the manner of tiles on the roof 
of a building. The outline of the shell, view- 
ed from above, is more heart-shaped than in 
other sea-tortoises, and terminates more 
acutely: each of the middle row of scales 
on the back is also of a sharpened form 
at the tip, more especially in the young or 
half-grown animal, and has a ridge or carina 
down the middle : the head is smaller in pro- 
portion than in other turtles ; the neck longer ; 
and the beak narrower, sharper, and more 
curved, so as to bear no inconsiderable re- 
semblance to the bill of a hawk, from which 
circumstance the animal derives its common 
or popular name of the hawk’s-bill turtle. The 
fore legs are longer than in the rest of the 
tribe, and it is said that when turned or laid 
on its back, the animal is enabled by their as- 
sistance, to reach the ground in such a manner 
as to recover its former situation, which no 
other turtle can do. In old specimens the 
neatness of the shell, and the well-defined 
qptliiie of thescal.es, are occasionally impaired, 
73 ? 
and this seems to be one principal reason of 
its having been sometimes confounded with 
the caretta, or loggerhead turtle. The hawk’s- 
bill. turtle is a native of the Asiatic and Ame- 
rican seas, and is sometimes, though less fre- 
quently, found in the Mediterranean. Its ge- 
neral length seems to be about three feet, 
from the tip of the bill to the end of the shell ; 
but it has been known to measure five feet in 
length, and to weigh five or six hundred 
pounds. In the Indian ocean in particular, 
specimens are said to have occurred of prodi- 
gious magnitude. 
The shell of this animal was anciently used 
for a shield, and still serves for that purpose 
among barbarous nations. The flesh is in no es- 
timation as a food ; the lamellae or plates of the 
shell, which are far stronger, thicker, and 
clearer than in any other kind, constituting 
the sole value of the animal, and affording 
the substance particularly known by the name 
of tortoise-shell : they are semitransparent, 
and most elegantly variegated with whitish, 
yellowish, reddish, and dark-brown clouds 
and undulations, so as to constitute, when 
properly prepared and polished, one of the 
most elegant articles fqr ornamental purposes. 
See Tortoise-shh;ll. 
The natural or general number of the dor- 
sal pieces is thirteen ; the marginal row con- 
sisting of twenty-live smaller pieces. This 
external coating is raised or separated from 
the bony part, which it covers, by placing 
fire beneath the shell ; the heat soon causing 
the plates to start, so as to be easily detachecl 
from the bone. These plates vary in thick- 
ness, according to the age and size of the ani- 
mal, and measure from an eighth to a quarter 
of an inch in thickness. A large turtle is said 
to afford about eight pounds of tortoise-shell. 
In order to bring tortoise-shell into the par- 
ticular form required on the part of the artist, 
it is steeped in boiling water, till it has ac- 
quired a proper degree of softness, and im- 
mediately afterwards committed to the pres- 
sure of a strong metallic mould of the figure 
required ; and where it is necessary that 
pieces should be joined, so as to compose a 
surface of considerable extent, the edges of 
the respective pieces are first scraped orThin- 
ned, and being laid over each other during 
their heated state, are committed to a strong 
press, by which means they are effectually 
joined or agglutinated. These are the me- 
thods also by which the various ornaments 
of gold, silver, &c. are occasionally affixed to 
the tortoise-shell. 
The Greeks and Romans appear to have 
been peculiarly partial to this elegant or- 
namental article, with which it was custom- 
ary to decorate the doors and pillars of their 
houses, their beds, &c. &c. In the reign of 
Augustus this species of luxury seems to have 
been at its height in Rome. 
“ The Egyptians,” says Mr. Bruce, in the 
supplement to his Travels, “ dealt very largely 
with the Romans in this elegant article of 
comrherce. Pliny tells us the cutting them for 
fineering or inlay ing was first practised by Car- 
vilius Pollio, from which we should presume, 
that the Romans were ignorant of the art of 
separating the laminae by fire placed in tire 
inside of the shell, when the meat is taken out : 
for these scales, though they appear per- 
fectly distinct and separate, do yet adhere, 
and oftener break than split, where the m; irk 
of separation may be seen distinctly. Mur- 
