. The Bermuda islands. An account of their scenery, climate, productions, physiography, natural history and geology, with sketches of their discovery and early history, and the changes in their flora and fauna due to man. Natural history. Figure 47.—Green Tiirtle. Figure 48.—Hawksbill. In the West Indies adult turtles, not of the largest size, will lay three or four lots of eggs, or sometimes five, at intervals of 14 or 15 days, with about 75 to 200 eggs in each lot, making a new nest each time. The total number might, therefore, be 500 to 1000. Thus the number of eggs, mentioned by Strachy as
. The Bermuda islands. An account of their scenery, climate, productions, physiography, natural history and geology, with sketches of their discovery and early history, and the changes in their flora and fauna due to man. Natural history. Figure 47.—Green Tiirtle. Figure 48.—Hawksbill. In the West Indies adult turtles, not of the largest size, will lay three or four lots of eggs, or sometimes five, at intervals of 14 or 15 days, with about 75 to 200 eggs in each lot, making a new nest each time. The total number might, therefore, be 500 to 1000. Thus the number of eggs, mentioned by Strachy as contained in those large turtles, may not have been exaggerated. The eggs hatch in six to eight weeks, according to the temperature, and the young take to the water at once.* The Green Turtle is peculiar in feeding chiefly on a vegetable diet, while the others are partly or mainly carnivorous. This species is particularly fond of the roots and crown or base of the " turtle grass" or eel-grass [Zostera marina), which grows in shallow water; but it will also eat various succulent sea-weeds,f and does not object to a certain amount of animal food. In confinement they will eat fish of any kind. They have now become rather shy and wary, so that their cap- ture, even in large seines, requires considerable skill and patience. * The very young turtles are devoured in large numbers by various birds and fishes, and doubtless also by the. hawksbill and other sea-turtles. Sharks are fond of them, even when eight to twelve inches in diameter. f Mr. True mentions that the stomach of one taken at Noank, Conn., in 1874 was full of Ii'ish Moss (Chondnis crispus), a very succulent and nutritious sea- weed, abundant on the rocks of the New England coast, just below ordinaiy low tides. This would make an excellent food for fattening these turtles in Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readabilit
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectnatural, bookyear1902
