Boys who accomplish this feat are few and far
between, though it is by no means uncommon for a turtle to be seized
while in the water and overturned, in which position it is helpless. A
turtle detected in shallow water falls a comparatively easy prey,
for on being hustled it soon loses heart and endeavours to hide its
head, ostrich-like, when it is easily captured. None unacquainted with
the skill with which the creature can spar with its flippers, and the
effectiveness of these flippers, when used as weapons of defence,
should venture to grip a turtle in its natural element.
Another species, stated to have a circumscribed habitat, has a steep
dome-shaped back, resembling at a casual glance a seamless metal
casting, with the edges abruptly turned up. The head is large, the eyes
deeply embedded in their sockets, and the animal has the power of
protruding and withdrawing the head much more extensively developed than
usual. The "death's head" staring from beneath the dome-shaped back
gives to the animal a most gruesome aspect. These details are supplied
by the master of a beche-de-mer schooner, to whom all the nooks and
corners of the Great Barrier Reef and of the other Coral Sea beyond,
from New Guinea to New Caledonia, are familiar.
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