370 
Order Chelonia. 
[No. 4, 
those of the river Tortoise are nauseous. Besides those, the animal had 
laid in the sand, there, must have been upwards of a thousand in her 
ovaria, in all stages of maturity. The flesh was dark and coarse and 
very few of the crowds of Burmans assembled at Ye to see the animal 
would eat any of it. For the eggs there was a popular ferment. 
According to my fishing friends, in that part of the country, this 
Turtle, which they called simply c8(S|c^2 (Zy&yyee, or ‘ large Turtle,’) 
is of exceedingly rare occurrence. The few that have been seen were 
on the shores of the numerous islands along the coast. This was 
the first one they had ever found on the main-land. Cantor does not 
mention it in his catalogue of the Chelonia in the Malayan seas, nor 
does Jerdon in his list of those of the Indian peninsula. Dumeril 
and Bibron remark that it is very rare, and found in the Mediterranean 
and Atlantic Ocean. One is mentioned by Rondelet, captured at 
Frontignan, seven cubits long (!). Two more specimens are recorded 
as having been taken off the coast of France; and Borlase mentions 
one netted on the Cornwall coast in 1756, of which he has given, 
says Dumeril, “ une mauvaise figure.” 
The only illustration, that I have seen of this animal is in Bell’s 
British Reptiles. It is of a young one, and is copied from a plate in 
the “ Fauna Italica” of the Prince of Musignano. Never having seen 
a young specimen, I cannot speak of the faithfulness or otherwise of 
the drawing. 
Sphargis coriacea is stated, by Audubon, to resort to the Turtle 
islands of Florida, for the purpose of depositing its eggs. The aver¬ 
age number laid by it may be 350; and it is less cautious than the 
common Turtle in performing this function. “ Its food consists of 
mollusca, fish, Crustacea, sea-urchins, and various marine plants,” 
(Bell’s Beptilia, p. 14). As far as my experience goes, the food of all 
Chelonia (excepting the Jdotamidce') is purely vegetable. 
Bell adds, that of two specimens of this Turtle taken, off Cornwall, 
in 1756, the larger weighed 800 lb., the smaller nearly 700. Another 
was caught on the coast of Dorsetshire, and is now, it is conjectured, 
the individual in the British Museum. An instance is related by 
Pennant, of the flesh of this animal causing serious illness to a person 
who had partaken of it, producing “ dreadful vomiting and purging.” 
Those who ate the individual now described, at Ye, experienced no¬ 
thing of the kind. S. R, Tickell. 
