The food of both the alligator and Temminck's snapper consists mainly of fish, and where common these tortoises must be ranked among the most potent agencies in denuding the rivers and lakes of their finny denizens. Not content with fish, the larger examples have been known to drag under water and devour such large waterfowl as ducks, and even geese. It is stated that the snappers exhibit a surprising amount of agility in the water, and swim after and capture the fish on which they feed. Such a feat seems scarcely credible of a bulky adult individual, while, moreover, it is provided with a remarkable and effective adaptation for taking its prey by stratagem. A very fine example of Tem- Scholastic Photo. Co.] [Parson's Green. minck's snapper was for Photo by many years confined in A GIANT TORTOISE WITH A EUROPEAN TORTOISE ON ITS BACK. a tank in the Reptile- Illustrating their comparative dimensions.

of the World558 The Living Animals

house in the Eegent's Park Zoological Gardens. It usually lay prone at the bottom of its tank, giving little or no signs of life throughout the day, but was wont to display more activity and to move about its tank at night. At times, when ready for a fresh food-supply, it was observed that it would lie motionless as a stone, as usual, but with its mouth open to its widest gape. This attitude it would maintain for several hours together. The singularity of this action was that the gaping jaws displayed to view two elongate worm-like structures, which sprang close to one another from the floor of the mouth just within its entrance. These worm-like appendages were continually writhing to and fro, and presented in both aspect and movements a most remarkable resemblance to actual living fish there can be no need for the snapper toworms. With this naturally provided decoy for exhaust its energies in the strenuous pursuit of its quarry. To make the delusion complete, the head, neck, and chin of Temminck's snapper are decorated with small lobular or leaflike membranous appendages resembling sponges or aquatic vegetation. The solid grey-brown triangular head of the animal itself might easily be mistaken for a piece of rock, and thus decorated with seemingly natural growths the unwary fish come browsing along it, rush upon the wriggling worms at the entrance of the cavernous chamber, and are lost. this interesting A photograph of Chelonian is reproduced on page 560, which depicts it with its mouth open, and indicates both the position and the presence of the worm-like decoy-appendages. There are several water-tortoises presenting a considerable external resemblance to the forms already noticed which belong to distinct family groups. Thus the MATAMATA TORTOISE of Northern Brazil has at

Photo by S. G. Payne & Son, Aylesbury, by permission of the Hon. Walter Rothschild. first sight, except for its short tail ELEPHANT-TORTOISE. and nose-like proboscis, much in Illustrating the ample chamber-like space provided within the carapace for the retraction of the head and limbs. Common With Temminck's Snapper. Fimbriated and foliaceous membranous outgrowths are developed on the head and neck to a much more luxuriant degree, and it would be interesting to ascertain if it possesses similar decoy-appendages inside the mouth.

The so-called SNAKE-NECKED WATER-TORTOISES of South America, and the LONG-NECKED aquatic ones of Australasia, possess modifications of skull-structure and other details that indicate family distinctness. A broad external character that serves to separate this group is that the neck, when drawn within the cavityfrom the Terrapins and all preceding forms of the carapace, is not flexed in the form of the letter S, but simply bent sideways along the anterior margin of the body. The species belonging to this group, which includes the Matamata, Snake-necked, and Soft-shelled Water-tortoises, and also a few essentially terrestrial species, are distinguished collectively by the appellation of the " SIDE-NECKED " TORTOISES.

Photo by S. G. Payne & Son, Aylesbury, by permission of the Hon. Walter ELEPHANT-TORTOISE. Rothschild.

Tortoises and Turtles 559

TURTLES.

Certain of the Terrapins, or Water- tortoises, belonging to the groups above described frequent saline river-estuaries and salt marshes, but none are strictly marine. With the Turtle Family, however, we arrive at an exclusively pelagic section, in which the animals are specially adapted for life in the high seas, the walking-limbs of the terrestrial and fresh-water species being replaced by long and powerful swimming-flippers. The shell in these marine Chelonians is more or less heart-shaped and flattened, and the carapace and plastron are always separate, and never united in a rigid box-like form, as with the Land-tortoises. In common with those fresh-water tortoises which pass the greater portion of their existence in lakes or rivers, the MARINE TURTLES resort to the land to deposit their islets in tropical oceans,eggs. The locations chosen are the sand-beaches or isolated sandy wherein, after excavating hollows to receive them, the eggs are covered up and left to

Jiy permission of the New fork Zoological Society. SNAPPING-TURTLE. Also known as the Alligator-terrapin, with reference to its long, alligator-like tail.

hatch with the heat of the sun. The eggs of turtles differ from those of the Land-tortoises and Terrapins in that their external covering is soft or leathery. So soon as the young turtles are hatched, they emerge from the sand, and instinctively make their way to the water. Many, however, are the perils that beset their course, and few there be out of perhaps 80 or 100 turtlets which gain the shore and get through into deep water. Fish-hawks and sea-birds of every description are waiting ready to pounce down upon them immediately they make their appearance, or to thin their ranks as they run the gauntlet of perhaps 100 yards or so to reach the sea in safety. Even at the waters edge the ordeal is by no means passed. Shoals of the smaller sharks and other predatory fish are continually appreciation of the toothsomenesscruising round in the shallow water, and have as high an of tender turtle as the proverbial London alderman. The writer was fortunate on one occasion, among the coral islands on the Australian coasts, to light upon a young turtle brood

The Living Animals of the World

just emerging from their sandy nest. The majority were assisted to the sea, and a few, reserved in the interests of science, were liberated in a bath of sea-water to have their first swim. Snapshot photographs were taken, one of which, reproduced on page 561, serves to illustrate the great relative length of the paddle-like limbs at this early stage and the variety of postures assumed during natation. Of the typical Marine Turtles three distinctly characterised species are recognised by zoologists.

Photo by York & Son] [dotting Hill. These are the GREEN TURTLE, TEMMINCK'S SNAPPER. indispensable for soup at alder-The two white points visible on the lower jaw represent the pair of worm-like appendages which the creature uses as a bait to attract or capture fish. manic banquets; the HAWKSBILL, or tortoiseshell-producing turtle; and the LOGGERHEAD..Of these three, the green turtle and the loggerhead more nearly resemble one another, and are apt to be confounded by the uninitiated. Such an error is very readily detected when the Chelonian comes to the table, the flesh of the loggerhead being rank and utterly unfit for food. In order, however, to be wise before the event, and to avoid a grievous misdirection of culinary energy turtle being a standard dish in the coral seas it is only necessary to count the number of large shield-like plates that flank each side of the central series in the creature's carapace. In the true green or edible turtle there are only four pairs of these large lateral shields, while in the loggerhead there are never less than five, its name implies, has a conspicuouslyand sometimes more. The loggerhead-turtle also, as larger and coarser head than the esculent species. The fact that while the green turtle is a strict vegetarian, feeding entirely on seaweeds, the loggerhead is altogether carnivorous, readily accounts for the diametrically diverse gastronomic properties of these two Chelonians. Both species attain to a considerable size, over 3 feet in length (the loggerhead being the larger), and are found inhabiting the same waters throughout the tropics.

The HAWKSBILL, or true tortoiseshell-producing turtle, never attains to quite as large dimensions as the two preceding species, though its carapace may measure as much as 2 feet 6 or 8 inches long. The structural feature that at once distinguishes the hawksbill from either the green or loggerhead species is the character of the horny shields developed on the surface of the carapace. Instead of the edges meeting in juxtaposition, as in those two forms, they overlap one another, like the scales of a fish, and are notable for their thickness and their exceedingly beautiful but variably marbled patterns. It is these marbled horny plates which constitute the tortoise-shell of commerce. In young individuals the substance is thin and very transparent, but thickens with advancing age, until in old individuals the plates may vary from | to inch in thickness. Like the two preceding species, the hawksbill, within tropical seas, enjoys a cosmopolitan distribution. Its habits, like the loggerhead's, are essentially carnivorous; but while, the flesh is coarse and rank, the eggs are valued for the table.

A remaining member of the Marine Turtle series is the so-called LUTH or LEATHERY TURTLE. This Chelonian differs so materially in structure from the foregoing species as to be referred to a distinct family. The horny plates, so conspicuous in all the other types, are entirely absent, the bony carapace, which is distinctly seven-ridged longitudinally, being covered with a homogeneous leather-like skin. Both jaws are formidably hooked and cutting throughout their edges, and the paddles are destitute of the two rudimentary claws found in the preceding species. The leathery turtle grows to an immense size; specimens

Tortoises and Turtles 561 have been recorded measuring as much as 8° feet in total length and weighing over 1,600 lbs. Its flesh is not only unfit for food, but is reported to be of a poisonous character. The coasts of Florida and Brazil are among the areas where the leathery turtle is met with in the greatest abundance. The more ordinary method of capturing turtle for the market or to supply the deficiencies of the larder aboard ship in tropical climates is to land at night, preferably when the moon is full, on the islands to which the females are in the habit of repairing to deposit their eggs. This function is invariably discharged during the night hours, and unless the moon is up the presence of the reptiles is not easily determined. Time is generally given for the turtle to excavate its sand-burrow and lay its eggs, usually over a hundred in number, the proper Photo by W Saville-Kent, F.Z.S8.} [Milford-on- Sea,

NEWLY HATCHED TURTLES ENJOYING THEIR FIRST SWIM.

The limbs at this early stage of their development are of an abnormal length, moment for the capture being that when, the task accomplished, it sets forth to regain its more accustomed element. The creature is then seized and turned suddenly upon its back, where it is left to struggle and flounder helplessly, being perfectly incapable of righting itself, while other captures are made. On outlying coral islands, such as those of the Lacepedes, off the Western Australian coast, several dozen of the Chelonians may represent one good night’s haul, the choice of the fittest examples being left. until the return of daylight. In many places turtles are pursued in the water and speared; while in some locations, notably at Keeling Island, as recorded by Darwin, the animals are chased by the natives in sailing-craft. One man steers the boat, the other one standing in the bows on the look-out for turtle. A Chelonian being sighted, an exciting stern chase ensues, and on coming abreast with the quarry the look-out man plunges into the water straight upon the turtle’s back, and 7]

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