Tortoise to Aid of Turtle

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 158, 9 July 1935, Page 10

Tortoise to Aid of Turtle

“AMALGAMATETO MEET MODERN SOUP DEMANDS CULINARY VALUE CAUSES SCARCITY. Not oniy is most of the “tortoiseshell” that is used commercially really turtle shell, but many a tureen of soup that the menu may calf turtle is not uncommonly tortoise. It appears that civilisation and the great demands of to-day have meant that plain Mr Tortoise and Mr Turtle have now become Messrs Tortoise and Turtle—an amalgamation to meet modern conditions (says a writer in the Daily Mail. A keeper from the reptile house at the zoo showed me a radiated tortoise, handsome as far as tortoises go, but rather placid and an inhabitant originally of Madagascar. This tortoise and another are recent arrivals at the zoo. Radiated tortoises were at one time common, but their culinary value has become increasingly known, with the result that they have been captured in large numbers and are now scarce. A tortoise drive is quite literally a drive, for a gun or rifle is not used, but a motor-car —usually an open car and very ancient. The method in the past has been to drive, wherever possible, in search of these tortoises. When a tortoise is spotted it is captured and loaded into the back of the car. The radiated tortoise’s shell is a perfect dome and is niaked with radiating dark bauds on pale horn colour. This, however accurate, is rat her a dull descript ion. The shell of the tortoise that 1 saw was very striking. 1 counted 13 lithe pictures of the sun on the tortoise’s back. Shafts of light radiated from each sun in the way that a child usually paints the sun’s rays-like the pct als of 'a. sunflower. Although tortoise may be used for “turtle” soup, there is, of course, no reason why it, should not be, as both are reptiles of the order ol Chelonia.