Turtle egg

“ The natives make a business-like search for these eggs each year, and sometimes surprise the female turtle on the beach. When she has once begun the egg-laying process, it has to be finished, even if she is turned on her back and made a prisoner immediately after. The extraordinary egg-producing power of these animals is all that preserves them from immediate extinction. [1] ”

“ The surface of the water, also, was covered with a variety of small blubber fish, which Antonio called by the Spanish name of dedales, or thimbles—a name not inappropriate, since they closely resembled a lady’s thimble both in shape and size. These, at the spawning or egg-laying period of the year, constitute another article of turtle-food. During the night-time the turtles crawled up on the shore, and the females dug holes in the sand, each about two feet deep, in which they deposited from sixty to eighty eggs. ”

“ Among us there are three sorts. The first is the green Turtle, which is not common, but is sometimes found on our Coast. The next is the Hawks-bill, which is common. These two sorts are extraordinary Meat. The third is Logger-Head, which Kind scarce any one covets, except it be for the Eggs, which of this and all other Turtles, are very good Food. None of these sorts of Creatures Eggs will ever admit the White to be harder than a Jelly; yet the Yolk, with boiling, becomes as hard as any other Egg.
Terebin. ”

“ It, nevertheless, supplies a good oil, proper for a variety of purposes.
That evening, we had turtle steaks, and turtle eggs, roasted turtle flippers, and callipash and callipee (the two latter in the form of soup) ,—in fact, turtle in every form known to the Mosquito men, who well deserve the name of turtle-men. The turtle conceals its eggs in the sand, but the natives are [111] ready to detect indications of a deposit, which they verify by thrusting in the sand the iron ramrod of a musket, an operation which they call “feeling for eggs.” ”

“ TURTLE-TURNING.
"The natives hunt for turtle eggs by pushing sticks in the sand; if the stick enters easily it reveals the locality of the deposit, and a little digging brings it to light. It is estimated that not fewer than fifty millions of turtle eggs are taken every year on the Amazon and its tributaries, and some authorities think the number is much larger.
"The wonder is that any turtles remain. They are shot in the water or caught when returning from the banks where they have deposited their eggs; young turtles by the thousand are eaten by alligators and large fishes ”

“ The eggs must have been nearly hatched at the time when they perished; for the bones of the young turtle are seen in the interior, with their shape fully developed, the interstices between the bones being entirely filled with grains of sand, which are cemented together, so that when the egg-shells are removed perfect casts of their form remain in stone. ”

“ Turtles, or turtle eggs, are an object of very considerable trade throughout the Amazonian basin. It is these chelonians whom they "turn"--that is to say, put on their backs--when they come from laying their eggs, and whom they preserve alive, keeping them in palisaded pools like fish-pools, or attaching them to a stake by a cord just long enough to allow them to go and come on the land or under the water. In this way they always have the meat of these animals fresh. ”

“ In the settled parts of the country great care is taken not to disturb these sand-banks till the whole body of turtles have laid their eggs. Sometimes they occupy fourteen days or more in the business. People are stationed at some elevated spot in the neighbourhood to warn off any one approaching the bank, and to take care that the timid turtles are in no way disturbed; otherwise it is supposed they would desert the ground altogether.
We had now a large supply of turtle and turtle eggs. Our Indian friends, well satisfied with their expedition, loaded their canoe almost to the water’s edge. ”

“ The turtle is protected in the same way; but its delicious flesh brings numerous enemies to attack it, from whom it has a hard task to escape. The egg of the tortoise, it may be remarked, has a very hard shell ”

“ I heard him say: 'Those little Chickens caught cold in that damp place, and so I must give them some turtle eggs.' I saw your children eat those three eggs, and in two or three days they were well.
"So you see the Turtle is a useful creature in the world, even to Chickens. Why do you not leave me in peace? As I must stay here against my will, it is not right that your children should trouble me. Sometimes they take all my rice and I go hungry, for our master will not allow me to go outside of this fence to hunt food for myself. ”

“ Turtles' eggs are held in great esteem wherever they are found, as well by Europeans as by others. They have a very soft shell, and are about the size of a pigeon's egg. The mother turtles lay three or four times a year, at intervals of two or three weeks. An experienced eye and hand are required to detect the eggs, as they are always ingeniously covered up with sand. The Orinoco and Amazon Indians obtain from these eggs a kind of clear, sweet oil, which they use instead of butter. ”

“ The turtle comes at night, and deposits from one hundred and forty to two hundred white eggs in the sand, carefully covering them up before returning to the sea. In about fourteen days she returns again to the same place to lay, and will come up about four times before stopping laying, thus giving some six hundred to eight hundred eggs. A native of Brazil will consume as many as twenty or thirty turtles' eggs at a meal, and a European will eat a dozen at a breakfast. They make an excellent omelet. ”

“ A stick is thrust into the ground to find the position of the eggs, which is often a matter of difficulty, as the ground is generally turned up within a circumference of ten to fifteen paces. The young are brought forth without the assistance of the parent, after the eggs have lain under ground about three months, when the young ones crawl out of the sand and make towards the water, which they are often prevented from reaching by the birds of prey that lie in wait for them. The turtle are in the habit of assembling on the beach during moon-light nights, when they are taken with great facility. ”

“ These prolific creatures come to lay their eggs in the sand, never failing to select a spot above high-water mark; consequently at low tide they have to go a good way up on the beach.
Having chosen a place, they quickly make a hole, and deposit therein about one hundred eggs, over which they again put the sand, leaving the spot in appearance as they found it; so that no one would discover the nest but for their tracks. The turtle immediately returns to the water, leaving the eggs to be hatched by the heat of the sun; in due time the little ones make their way out and go straight to the sea. ”

“ The manufacture of _"manteigna de tartaruga,"_ or turtle butter, which will bear comparison with the best products of Normandy or Brittany, does not take less every year that from two hundred and fifty to three hundred millions of eggs. But the turtles are innumerable all along the river, and they deposit their eggs on the sands of the beach in incalculable quantities. ”

“ These creatures are annually robbed of their eggs in millions. They have many enemies, but man is the chief. When a turtle hatching place is discovered, the Indians assemble, and as soon as all the eggs have been deposited, they uncover and collect them. They eat them—but that is not the principal use to which they are put. It is for the making of oil, or “tortoise-butter,” they are collected.
The eggs are thrown into a large trough or canoe, where they are broken up with a wooden spade and stirred about for awhile. ”

“ Six nests full of turtles' eggs were found by us upon a sandy island near Laboba. It is very difficult to discover the spots in which the eggs are deposited, and requires a practised eye: the natives are very skilful in this. When the turtle wishes to deposit her eggs, she goes on shore, on the sandy beach, and selects a spot amid the grass, where, with her hind feet, she makes a hole about a foot and a half deep, and having laid from eighty to a hundred eggs, covers them carefully up, and makes a fresh nest in some other spot. ”

“ Sea Turtles have flat shells between which the flipper-like feet and huge head cannot be retracted. There are no nails or separate toes, and the fore feet are much the larger. The Green Turtle (Chelone midas) is much esteemed as food, with its eggs. It lives in or near the Gulf Stream, feeds on the roots of eelgrass, comes ashore at night, during May, and lays nearly one hundred eggs, which hatch in six weeks; the laying is usually repeated several times every two weeks, near the first nest. ”

“ In the sea it lives upon shell-fish, and such is the 134 strength of its jaws, that it is able to break stones; when on shore, it feeds upon herbage. The female turtle lays eggs like those of birds, one hundred in number; these she buries on the dry land, covers them over with earth, pats it down with her breast, and sits on them during the night. The young are hatched in the course of a year. Some persons are of opinion that they hatch their eggs by means of the eyes, by merely looking at them. The Troglodytæ have turtles with horns, [131] which resemble the branches of a lyre ”

“ They form a new hole each time they lay, and the second is generally dug near the first, as if the animal were quite unconscious of what had befallen it. It will readily be understood that the numerous eggs seen 377 in a Turtle on cutting it up, could not be all laid the same season. The whole number deposited by an individual in one summer may amount to four hundred, whereas, if the animal is caught on or near her nest, as I have witnessed, the remaining eggs, all small, without shells, and as it were threaded like so many large beads, exceed three thousand. ”

“ The total number of eggs annually destroyed amounts, therefore, to 48,000,000. As each turtle lays about 120, it follows that the yearly offspring of 400,000 turtles is thus annihilated. A vast number, nevertheless, remain undetected; and these would probably be sufficient to keep the turtle population of these rivers up to the mark, if the people did not follow the wasteful practice of lying in wait for the newly-hatched young, and collecting them by thousands for eating; their tender flesh and the remains of yolk in their entrails being considered a great delicacy. ”

“ The loggerhead lays three sets of eggs, each averaging one hundred and seventy. The trunk turtle is frequently of enormous size, with a pouch like a pelican’s; the shell is soft, and the flesh is almost of the consistency of butter. It is the least valuable, having no shell, and the flesh being seldom eaten. They all lay their eggs much in the same way. On nearing the shore on a moonlit night, the turtle raises her head above the water to ascertain that no enemy is near, and if she thinks all safe, she emits a loud hissing sound to drive away any which may be concealed from her sight. ”

“ The flesh of the female is held in the greatest estimation, and it is considered to be in perfection at the time she is about depositing her eggs. The flesh, the eggs, and certain portions of the intestines, are often salted and barrelled for shipment to a distance. The eggs of the turtle, although oily, are very savory, and make an excellent omelet. The shell does not harden, but is leathery; and the white never coagulates, but is thrown away and the yolk only eaten. The Indians of Brazil frequently eat the eggs raw, mixed with their cassava farinha. ”

“ Soon after this they came to a long sandbank, where the old trader said they should find as many turtles' eggs as they wished for, although to Barney and Martin there seemed to be nothing on the bank at all. The fresh-water turtle of the Amazon, of which there are various species, is one of the most useful of reptiles. Its flesh supplies abundance of good food; and the eggs, besides being eaten, afford an excellent oil. The largest species grow to the length of three feet, and have a flattish oval shell of a dark colour, and quite smooth. ”

“ It is only taken at night when depositing its eggs in the sand, as the sharpness of the margin of its shell renders it dangerous to attempt to turn it in the water--indeed even the green turtle, with a comparatively rounded margin to the carapace, occasionally, in struggling to escape, inflicts deep cuts on the inner side of the leg of its captor, of which I myself have seen an instance. ”

“ Perched upon a bough at no great height from the ground, it pours forth its soft murmurings with a delightful crescendo and diminuendo, while close at hand, upon a mere frame-work of a nest, the mate sits brooding upon her two milk-white eggs.
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Arriving in this country towards the end of April or beginning of May, the Turtle-Dove is seen only in pairs until the young are able to fly. Young and old then unite in flocks, and ten or a dozen may often be found together in the pea-fields and on the stubble, where they pick up the fallen grain. ”

“ From the colour, form, and taste, I knew them to be turtle's eggs; there were at least sixty, so I had no more care about food. I carried away in my apron as many as I could preserve from the rays of the sun: this I endeavoured to effect by burying them in the sand, and covering them with one end of our plank, and succeeded very well. Besides these, there were as many to be found on the shore as we required; I have sometimes found as many as ninety together. ”