Excerpt from The Reptiles and Batrachians of North America All turtles are oviparous. The eggs are fertilized within the oviduct; they are deposited in the sand or earth, and left to be hatched by the heat of the sun. The ovaries and testes are paired; the intromittent organ of the male is simple. When in copulation the male is carried on the back of the-female. On the paddle of male sea turtles the first claw is modified so as to form a hook to grasp the edges of the shells of their mates. Males of many species are distinguished by a depression or concavity in the plastron. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.