nutes. Between 11:00 and 11:36 p. m. she dug the nest hole by first
scooping sand with one hind flipper and then with the other; when sand
was thrown by one flipper, there was a similar, but weaker, motion by
the other flipper. At 11:36 p. m. she stopped digging. By crawling up
behind the turtle we were able to examine the nest cavity, which
measured 21 centimeters across the top and 38 centimeters deep. The
diameter of the bottom of the hole was estimated to be about 50
centimeters. At 11:40 p. m. she released the first egg; a minute later
she dropped the second. At 11:42 p. m. the third and fourth eggs were
released; these were coherent, as were the fifth and sixth eggs released
at 11:43 p. m. After this, as many as three eggs were dropped at a
time. After laying about 60 eggs, she paused for a minute and then
continued laying. By 11:55 p. m. she had laid 98 eggs; after this, the
process of deposition slowed considerably. She dropped a fragment of an
egg followed by normal eggs. At midnight she deposited a miniature egg
about 20 mm. in diameter. This terminated the deposition. Immediately
she began to cover the nest.

Within ten minutes after the last egg was deposited the nest had been
covered. The turtle first had been seen at 10:20 p. m.; judging from its
speed and its distance from the water, the turtle probably had been on
land for about ten minutes. About 25 minutes were used in crawling from
the water to the nesting site. One hour and 33 minutes were spent at the
nesting site; of this time twenty minutes were taken for egg deposition.
The turtle was not followed back to the water, but if the return trip
took approximately the same amount of time as required to travel from
the ocean to the nesting site, the total elapsed time from departure to
return to the water was about two and one-half hours.

We collected the eggs as they were deposited. There were 106 eggs, each
having a diameter of about 40 mm., plus one small egg and a fragment of
another. The turtle had a carapace about one meter in length.

From our limited observations of sea turtles and their tracks on the
beaches, and from the accounts of these animals by the residents of the
coastal region, great numbers of sea turtles use these relatively
uninhabited beaches for nesting grounds. However, the turtles do not go
unmolested. The natives capture turtles and collect their eggs. Opened
and emptied nests also showed signs of predatory activity on the par