376 T H E T U R T L E R S .
was carefully coiled up and placed in a convenient part of the canoe. One
extremity of this peg enters a sheath of iron that loosely attaches it to a
long wooden spear, until a turtle has been pierced through the shell by
the other extremity. He of the canoe paddles away as silently as possible
whenever he spies a turtle basking on the water, until he gets within a
distance of ten or twelve yards, when he throws the spear so as to hit the
animal about the place which an entomologist would choose, were it a
large insect, for pinning it to a piece of cork. As soon as the turtle is
struck, the wooden handle separates from the peg, in consequence of
the looseness of its attachment. The smart of the wound urges on the
animal as if distracted, and it appears that the longer the peg remains
in its shell, the more firmly fastened it is, so great a pressure is exercised
upon it by the shell of the turtle, which being suffered to run like a whale,
soon becomes fatigued, and is secured by hauling in the line with great
care. In this manner, as the Pilot informed me, eight hundred Green
Turtles were caught by one man in twelve months.
Each turtler has his crawl, which is a square wooden building or pen,
formed of logs, which are so far separated as to allow the tide to pass
freely through, and stand erect in the mud. The turtles are placed in
this inclosure, fed and kept there until sold. If the animals thus confined
have not laid their eggs previous to their seizure, they drop them
in the water, so that they are lost. The price of Green Turtles, when I
was at Key West, was from four to six cents per pound.
The loves of the turtles are conducted in a most extraordinary manner
; but as the recital of them must prove out of place here, I shall pass
them over. There is, however, a circumstance relating to their habits,
which I cannot omit, although I have it not from my own ocular evidence,
but from report. When I was in the Floridas, several of the turtlers assured
me, that any turtle taken from the depositing ground, and carried on the
deck of a vessel several hundred miles, would, if then let loose, certainly
be met with at the same spot, either immediately after, or in the following
breeding season. Should this prove true, and it certainly may, how much
will be enhanced the belief of the student in the uniformity and solidity
of Nature's arrangements, when he finds that the turtle, like a migratory
bird, returns to the same locality, with perhaps a delight similar to that
experienced by the traveller, who, after visiting distant countries, once
more returns to the bosom of his cherished family.
( 377 )
T H E ROUGH-LEGGED FALCON.
FALCO LAGOPUS, GMEL.
P L A T E C L X V I . MALE.
SHOULD the bird known in Europe by the above name, and that found
in the United States, prove to be identical, I should not be a little surprised,
as I consider our Rough-legged Falcon and the Falco niger of
WILSON to be of the same species, the difference in their colour being
merely indicative of a difference in age.
While at Boston, in the winter of 1832, I offered premiums for birds
of this family, and received as many as eight at one time, of which not
one resembled another in the colour of the plumage, although they were
precisely similar in form and internal structure. The females were similar
to the males, but were distinguished by their superior size. These
eight birds, and some others which I examined, were all shot on the
same salt marshes, within about five miles of the city. Their flight
was precisely similar, as were their usual attitudes, either when perched
on the branches of trees, stakes, or stalks of salt grass-hay, or when
alighted on the banks of the ditches to watch for their prey. The
darker the bird the more shy it was; when pursued it would fly at a
much greater elevation and farther off than the light coloured individuals
; and I feel confident, from my knowledge of birds, that this difference
as to shyness arose from the circumstance, that the dark birds were
the oldest. When listening to their disagreeable squealing notes, I could
perceive no difference whatever. All these Hawks arrived in the marshes
within a day or two of each other, in straggling parties of four or live,
and the individuals composing these parties remained near each other as
if retaining a mutual attachment. These and similar observations, made
in other places from the Bay of Fundy to the marshes and meadows in
the maritime districts of the State of Maryland, have convinced me that
these Hawks form only one species.
The Rough-legged Hawk seldom goes farther south along our Atlantic
coast than the Eastern portions of North Carolina, nor have I ever
seen it to the west of the Alleghanies. It is a sluggish bird, and confines
itself to the meadows and low grounds bordering the rivers and