330 ORDERS OF REPTILES— TORTOISES, TERRAPINS AND TURTLES 
A large specimen has a shell 16 inches long by 
14 inches wide, and weighs from 20 to 30 pounds. 
The upper surface is olive brown mottled with 
black, and underneath is clear white. On ac- 
count of its widely palmated feet, these “turtles ” 
are the most active swimmers of all the fresh- 
water terrapins and turtles. In North America 
this Family is represented by five species. 
THE SEA-TURTLES. 
The sea is so vast, it is but natural that we 
should look to it for the largest species of Chelo- 
nians. There is one character by which any one 
can recognize a sea-turtle, anywhere. The front 
limbs are developed as long, flat, triangular flip- 
pers, without separate toes and claws, like the 
flippers of a sea-lion. 
Nearly all the sea-going Turtles are large, and 
one species is the largest of all living Chelonians. 
Without exception, all are habitants of tropical 
waters; but occasionally an individual is lulled 
into fancied security, and borne northward in 
the warm waters of the Gulf Stream until it 
wanders out of the track, and suddenly finds 
itself in the chilly arctic current. Then, be- 
numbed with cold, it falls an easy prey to the 
first predatory fisherman who sails near it, and 
promptly lands in Fulton Market. 
HARD-SHELLED SEA-TURTLES. 
Chelonidae. 
The Green Turtle 1 is the most important and 
valuable of the sea-turtles, and in the Atlantic it 
is the species that is most widely distributed. 
It is of large size, its flesh is excellent food, and 
wherever found it is regarded as a prize. It is 
said that sometimes it attains a weight of about 
600 pounds ; but those which now find their way 
to market in our large cities are steadily dimin- 
ishing in size, and rarely exceed fifty pounds. 
This turtle is found from Long Island down 
the Atlantic to Cuba, throughout the Gulf of 
Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, the West Indies, and 
on southward to Brazil. It is also found in the 
Indian Ocean, and is common on the coast of 
Ceylon. I should say that on our coast Key 
West is its centre of greatest abundance and 
maximum size. The favorite haunts of this 
creature are in the shallow channels that lie be- 
1 Che-lo'ne mtj'das. 
tween the keys, where they find quiet waters and 
plenty of food, but no security from the sharp 
eyes of the turtle-catchers. It feeds upon aqua- 
tic plants that grow on the bottom of shallow 
seas. 
A large proportion of the Green Turtles capt- 
ured on the Florida coast are sent north, by 
steamer and rail, to supply the ever-greedy and 
high-priced city markets from Baltimore north- 
ward. 
And really, it is not surprising that the flesh 
of this animal is considered most excellent food, 
and much sought after, both for soups and steaks. 
It is tender, fine-grained, dark colored, not too 
fat and very agreeable in flavor. Moreover, this 
is a clean-looking animal, its shell is smooth, its 
head is small and neatly formed, and the front 
flippers are scaled, quite down to their extremi- 
ties. The shell is of no commercial value. 
The Hawksbill Turtle, or Tortoise-Shell 
Turtle , 2 furnishes the valuable tortoise-shell of 
commerce, and it is the most beautiful of all the 
Chelonians. Its name is derived from the strong- 
ly hooked beak which terminates its upper jaw. 
Its back is covered with a roof of very beautiful 
curved plates of tortoise-shell, overlapping like 
shingles, each scale terminating in a saw-tooth 
point. The scales are clear yellowish horn, beau- 
tifully mottled with black and brown. 
This species is yet found occasionally around 
the Bahama Islands, where the sea is very clear, 
and the white-sand bottom is liberally garnished 
with sea-fans, corals, and other beautiful inverte- 
brate forms. Its range as a whole is from the 
coast of southern Florida, the Bahamas and the 
Gulf of Mexico, southward through the West 
Indies to the Amazon. It also inhabits the tropi- 
cal waters of the Old World. 
Formerly it often grew to a weight of between 
twenty and thirty pounds, but it has been so 
persistently sought after, on account of the com- 
mercial value of its shell, that all those now seen 
in the markets are very small. The largest shell 
on record is 34 inches long. Another species is 
found on the Pacific coast, and it bears so strong 
a resemblance to its eastern relative that for a 
considerable period the two species were be- 
lieved to be identical. 
The Loggerhead Turtle 3 looks like a coarse 
2 Che-lo'ne im-bri-ca'ta. 
3 Thal-las-so-chel'ys car-et'ta. 
