The senior author has reported on overwintering hatchlings of the turtle Chinemys reevesii, based on observations in his home garden (Fukada, 1965: 76). This paper deals with the confirmation of this fact.
We kept turtles in the outdoor pens. Dates of egg laying and emergence are shown in Table 1. A summary of our observations is as follows: 1) The turtle lays eggs in the ground in June to July in Kyoto, and the hatchlings emerge from the ground in April and May the next year. 2) Sometimes, the hatchlings emerge in October of the same year. 3) The eggs of one clutch number 4 to 11, with an average of 6.7 eggs, in one to two clutches per year. When two clutches are laid, the interval between clutches is about one month. 4) The average egg measures 38mm×22.5mm with a weight of 11g. 5) The newly emerged hatchlings have a carapace length of about 30mm and a weight of 6g.

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Research on the hawksbill turtle was carried out in Southeast Asia during the period from August to September of 1973. Adult hawksbills used for tortoise shell are caught on a number of coral banks in the Sulu, Flores and Banda Seas, and juveniles (18-36cm in carapace length) for taxidermy are caught on the west coast of Sumatra and the south coast of Celebes. It is presumed that the hawksbill in the Java and Flores Seas nests from January through June, but the nesting months in the Sulu Sea are not clear. One- and two-year-old turtles grow to an average carapace size of 23cm and 33cm respectively. The color of the plastron rapidly changes from black to light yellow during the yearling stage, especially during the period of growth from 12cm to 20cm in carapace length. The annual number of hawksbill turtles captured is roughly estimated at 5, 000 adults in the Sulu Sea, 15, 000 adults and 20, 000-30, 000 juveniles in the Indonesian territory.

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