n the Gulf
of Manaar turtle is frequently found of such a size as to measure
between four and five feet in length; and on one occasion, in riding
along the sea-shore north of Putlam, I saw a man in charge of some
sheep, resting under the shade of a turtle shell, which he had erected
on sticks to protect him from the sun--almost verifying the statement of
AElian, that in the seas off Ceylon there are tortoises so large that
several persons may find ample shelter beneath a single shell.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Emyda Ceylonensis_, GRAY, _Catalogue_, p. 64, tab. 29 a.;
_Mag. Nat. Hist._ p. 265: 1856. Dr. KELAART, in his _Prodromus_ (p.
179), refers this to the common Indian species, _E. punctata_; but Dr.
Gray has shown it to be a distinct one. It is generally distributed in
the lower parts of Ceylon, in lakes and tanks. It is put into wells to
act the part of a scavenger. By the Singhalese it is named _Kiri-ibba_.]

[Footnote 2: Chelonia virgata, _Schweig_.]

[Footnote 3: "Tiktontai de ara en taute te thalatte, kai chelonai
megintai, onper oun ta elytra orophoi ginontai kai gar esti kai
mentekaideka pechon en cheloneion, hos hypoikein ouk oligous, kai tous
helious pyroiestatous apostegei, kai skian asmetois parechei."--Lib.
xvi. c. 17. AElian copied this statement literatim from MEGASTHENES,
_Indica Frag_. lix. 31; and may not Megasthenes have referred to some
tradition connected with the gigantic fossilised species discovered on
the Sewalik Hills, the remains of which are now in the Museum at the
East India House?]

The hawksbill turtle[1], which supplies the tortoise-shell of commerce,
was at former times taken in great numbers in the vicinity of
Hambangtotte during the season when they came to deposit their eggs, and
there is still a considerable trade in this article, which is
manufactured into ornaments, boxes, and combs by the Moormen resident at
Galle. If taken from the animal after death and decomposition, the
colour of the shell becomes clouded and milky, and hence the cruel
expedient is resorted to of seizing the turtles as they repair to the
shore to deposit their eggs, and suspending them over fires till heat
makes the plates on the dorsal shields start from the bone of the
carapace, after which the creature is permitted to escape to the
water.[2] In illustration of the resistless influence of instinct at the
period of breeding, it may be mentioned that the same tortoise is
believed to return again and again to t