File:Reptiles and birds. A popular account of the various orders; with a description of the habits and economy of the most interesting. (1873) (14769452943).jpg

Identifier: reptilesbirdspo00figu (find matches)
Title: Reptiles and birds. A popular account of the various orders; with a description of the habits and economy of the most interesting.
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors: Figuier, Louis, 1819-1894 Gillmore, Parker
Subjects: Birds Reptiles
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton and Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ery house (in Ega) has a little pond called a corralor pen in the back-yard, to hold a stock of these animals throughthe season of dearth—the wet months. Those who have a numberof Indians in their employ send them out for weeks, when the watersare low, to collect a stock, and those who have not purchasetheir supply—this is attended with some difficulty, however, asthey are rarely offered for sale. The price of turtles, like thatof other articles of food, has risen greatly since the introductionof steam-vessels. Thus, when I arrived, in 1850, a middle-sizedtortoise could be bought for ninepence, but when I left, in 1859, 152 REPTILES AND BIRDS. they were with difficulty obtained for eight or nine shiUings each.Their abundance varies with the amount of diurnal subsidence ofthe waters. When the river sinks less than the average, they arescarce ; but when high waters have prevailed, they are numerous,their haunts being less restricted, and appropriate breeding-placesmore easily found.
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Fig- 37—Egyptian River Turtle. Their flesh is very tender, palatable, and wholesome ; but it iscloying, and every one ends sooner or later by becoming thoroughlysurfeited. I became so sick of turtle in the course of two years thatI could not bear their smell, although nothing else was to be had;consequently I suffered from actual hunger. One of the most amusing sketches in Mr. Batess book is a journeyhe made on the SolimoenS; during which he visited the praias, or FRESH-WATER TURTLES. 153 sand-islands, the turtle-pools in the forest, and the tributaries andlagoons of the great river. His companion was Cardoza, who wasa sort of official superintendent of the diggers for turtles eggs onthe sand-banks of Shimuni, the island lying nearest to Ega. Thereare four or five of these royal praias, as they are called, in thedistrict, each having its commandant, whose business is to see thatevery inhabitant has an equal chance in the egg-field. * The pregnant turtles descend from the interior po

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