ihc PaturjiUsts Coinpattifltt 
Yol. 1. BBOCKFORT, J^. Y., SEPTEMBER, 1885. Mo. S. 
THE TURTLE. 
GREEN TURTLE, (chelonia viridis). 
“Beautiful soup,so rich and greeny 
Waiting in a hot tureen. 
Who for such dainties would not stoop % 
Soup of the ereiiing, beautiful somp.”""CARKOIjL. 
^UETLE is the name of those 
^ Chelonian reptiles, the lamhy 
CHELOisTAD^ of some, which have a 
rather Hat carapace, and tin-like 
paddles instead of legs, suited for 
swimming, and not for walking. 
The fore-limbs are much longer 
than the hind-limbs. The toes are 
not all furnished with nails; in some 
species there is only one on each 
foot, in others there are two. Tur¬ 
tles are all marine, and although 
they lay their eggs on the beach, 
seldom visit the shore for any other 
purpose. The young, soon after be¬ 
ing hatched,make their way through 
the sand which covers them, and 
immediately betake themselves to 
the water. Turtles crawl slowly 
and awkwardly on tne shore; hut 
their movements in water are com¬ 
paratively quick, and even graceful. 
Some of the species feed entirely on 
grass-wrack and sea weeds, which 
their powerful jaws cut with great 
ease; others prey on crustaceans. 
mollusks, and fishes. The flesh of 
those which subsist on animal food 
is musky and unpleasant; hut that 
of the species whose food is vegeta¬ 
ble is much esteemed. The Green 
Turtle attains a large size, being 
sometimes six or seven teet in length 
and weighing 100 to 800 pounds. 
Another excellent species of turtle 
is the Edible Turtle, (chelonia vir- 
GATA,) of the East Indies, which is 
frequently four of five feet in length. 
The Hawkbill Turtle, (caretta im- 
BRTCATA,) found in the warmer parts 
of the Atlantic Ocean, in the Indian 
Ocean, and in the Red Sea, is par¬ 
ticularly valuable, as yielding the 
best tortoise-shell. The shell of a 
turtle, found fossil in India, had a 
length of 12 teet, and the animal is 
supposed to have been 20 feet long. 
The following, in regard to these 
reptiles, we take from Wood’s Nat¬ 
ural History : ‘‘The very curious 
reptiles w^hich are known by the 
name of tortoises are remarkable 
for afiording the first example of a 
skeleton brought to the exterior ot 
the body—a formation which is fre¬ 
quent enough in the lower orders, 
the crustaceans and insects being 
familiar examples thereof. In these 
reptiles the hones of the chest are 
developed into a curious kind of box, 
more or less perfect, which contains 
within itself all the muscles and the 
viscera, and in most cases can receive 
into its cavity the head, neck, and 
limbs, in one genus so efiectually 
that when the animal has withdrawn 
its limbs and head, it is contained in a 
tightly-closed case without any ap- 
