| Zoology | Vol. IV, No. 3 |
Issued December 2, 1905
ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE LEATHER-BACK
TURTLE, DERMOCHELYS, ON THE
COAST OF CALIFORNIA
BY JOHN VAN DENBURGH
Curator of the Department of Herpetology.
Plates IX-XI
Records of the occurrence of the great marine Leather-back Turtle in the Pacific Ocean are so few that any additional observations are of much interest. Temminck and Schlegel[19] report upon a specimen captured near the Bay of Nagasaki, Japan, in May, 1825. Mr. Swinhoe[20] saw a large one at Amoy, China, in October, 1859. Aflalo[21] has described a pair from Thursday Island, Queensland, Australia. Krefft[22] mentions an example nine feet long from the coast of New South Wales. McCoy[23] figures one caught at Portland, Victoria, Australia, in 1862. Another was harpooned by Captain Subritzky in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, in May, 1892.[24] Boulenger[25] mentions a skull from the Solomon Islands. The species has been recorded from the coast of Chile by Molina[26] and Philippi,[27] and from Guaymas, Mexico, by Mr. Belding.[28]