In order to prepare the shell, it is softened by means of boiling after being torn from the animal's back. It is then flattened by being passed through a press, previous to being polished. In this condition it is ready for all sorts of ornamental work. The Loggerhead Turtle, or _C. caouana_ (Fig. 43), like the Green Turtle, has its scales placed side by side. Its colour is brownish or deep maroon. It is found incidentally on the French and English coasts, and abounds in the Atlantic and Mediterranean seas. Its length is about four feet; its weight, from three to four hundred pounds. It is very voracious, and feeds principally on mollusks. Its shell is much valued, but its flesh is indifferent, and its fat altogether uneatable; however, it is used in some localities to make lamp-oil. [Illustration: Fig. 44.--Leather-back or Corded Tortoise (_Spargis coriacea_).] The Leather-back or Corded Tortoise, _Spargis coriacea_, differs from every other genus, its body being enveloped in a coriaceous hide; tuberculous in the young, perfectly smooth in adults. The feet are without claws. Seven longitudinal grooves extend from the neck to the tail, which remind one of the seven chords of the ancient lyre. Only one species of _Sphargis_ is known (_S. coriacea_, Fig. 44). This species is found in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean, and is, with the Hawk's-bill Tortoise, the only species found on the British coast. Its body is a light brown, with the lines of the carapace fawn-colour; its members black, edged with yellow. It attains the length of six to eight feet, and a breadth of about one-fifth of the length: it sometimes attains the weight of fourteen to sixteen hundred pounds. Its flesh is said to be unwholesome, and, on being eaten, to produce severe vomiting and purging. BIRDS. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Birds are the spoilt children of nature--the favourites of creation. Their brilliant plumage often assumes the most resplendent colours. They have the happy privilege of moving in space--now fluttering through the air, hunting the insect which flits from flower to flower; now soaring high aloft, and swooping upon the victim it has marked for its prey; now cleaving the atmosphere on rapid wing, and performing journeys of vast extent with great rapidity. Mankind have a profound sympathy with these little winged beings, which charm at once by the elegance of their form, the melody of their song, and the graceful impetuosity of their movements. Anatomically speaking, birds are connected with the _Mammifera_ by their internal structure. Their skeleton essentially resembles that of the Mammals, the bones being nearly the same, only modified slightly for the purposes of flight.