8 4 
TORTOISES AND TURTLES. 
there are usually two claws to each paddle, one of these frequently disappears in 
the adult. In colour, the adult is brown above, and yellowish beneath; but the 
young is uniformly dark brown or blackish. The Mexican loggerhead (T. kempi), 
from the Gulf of Mexico, differs in having a median ridge on the bone of each jaw, 
whereas in the ordinary species such ridges are confined to the investing horny 
sheath. According to Mr. Gosse, loggerheads feed on cuttles and other molluscs, 
their powerful beaks enabling them to crush strong conch-shells as easily as a man 
can crack a nut. 
Apart from the difference in their food, all turtles appear to be 
similar in their general mode of life, never leaving the sea except for 
the purpose of laying their eggs, and then shuffling along in an awkward, ungainly 
manner. During the laying season they resort to low sandy coasts, especially 
unfrequented tropical islands, in vast numbers; and if once turned on their backs, 
while on shore, are unable to 
right themselves again. This 
habit of resorting to the land 
to lay their eggs clearly proves, 
it may be observed, the descent 
of turtles from fresh - water 
members of the order. Writing 
of the green turtles at Aldabra, 
one of the Seychelles group of 
islands, Mr. Spurs remarks that 
the males permanently frequent 
the bay of that island, the 
females when they attain full 
maturity (twenty or twenty- 
live years) disappearing alto¬ 
gether. When the latter come 
to the shore for the purpose of 
laying, their shells are covered 
Commercially, the females are 
more valuable than the males, and, as they are more easily captured, the proportion 
found on the island is one female to every ten males, although, for one of the 
latter, about ten of the former sex are hatched. Turtles generally come ashore 
on line moonlight nights, displaying great caution in landing, and then generally 
uttering a loud hissing noise which serves to disperse many of their enemies. Once 
landed, the female turtle, writes Audubon, “ proceeds to form a hole in the sand, 
which she effects by removing it from under her body with her hind-flippers, 
scooping it out with so much dexterity that the sides seldom, if ever, fall in. The 
sand is raised alternately with each flipper, as with a large ladle, until it has 
accumulated behind her, w r hen, supporting herself with her head and forepart on 
the ground fronting her body, she, with a spring from each flipper, sends the sand 
around, scattering it to the distance of several feet. In this manner the hole is dug 
to the depth of eighteen inches, or sometimes more than two feet. This labour I 
have seen performed in the short space of nine minutes. The eggs are then 
YOUNG LOGGERHEAD TURTLE. 
with barnacles of two or three weeks’ growth. 
