Many friends always check the quality of the bow stock when buying a violin or bow. At this point, the seller always likes to say, what kind of material is this. The buyer is confused when listening. In the tail stock materials, ebony horsetail stock is commonly used for mid to high grade bows, while hawksbill and ivory horsetail stock is commonly used for high-end bows. Ebony and ivory are not uncommon, many friends know what they are, but what exactly is hawksbill turtle, friends will have doubts in their hearts. I recently visited a bow workshop and gained some knowledge about bows. I took some photos and shared them with friends.

The hawksbill turtle, also known as the Thirteen Scales Turtle, the Vermouth Turtle, or the Crested Turtle, belongs to the family Turtles and lives in warm water oceans. It breeds every summer, digging pits on the beach and laying eggs during the day, laying 120-130 eggs each time. The incubation period is about 49-60 days, relying on the temperature of nature. The hawksbill turtle has a fierce temperament and feeds on mollusks, small fish, seaweed, and other animals. Its presence can be seen along the southern coast of China, and it is a second-class protected animal in China. The hawksbill turtle is a small individual sea turtle. The shield plates on its shell are arranged in a tile like pattern, with a total of thirteen shield plates, hence it is also known as the "Thirteen Edges". The shell of adult hawksbill turtles is a bright yellow brown color. During the breeding season, most sea turtles climb onto the beach at night to lay eggs, while hawksbill turtles come ashore during the day to lay eggs, and their numbers are also lower than other turtles.

Only a few decades ago, Hainan Island and other places in China were a paradise for turtles, seabirds, and other creatures to inhabit. The climate there is warm, the beaches are soft, the seawater is clean, and the food is abundant, making it very suitable for sea turtles to live. There are numerous resources such as hawksbill turtles in the local area, and visitors can swim with them when they go to the sea to play. After landing, turtles of all sizes can be seen "strolling" everywhere, and turtle eggs are everywhere. However, due to people's lack of attention to protection, turtle resources have sharply decreased, and we can no longer see the scenery of the past.

And the beautiful hawksbill turtle, with its decorative patterns on its shell, often attracts "deadly disasters"; In the famous poem "The Peacock Flies Southeast" of the Han Dynasty, there is a line of poetry that goes, "With silk shoes on my feet, and tortoiseshell shining on my head. Due to the heat clearing and detoxifying properties of hawksbill shells, which can be used as medicine, handicrafts made from hawksbill shells are said to have the function of "warding off evil and dispelling diseases", and are widely utilized by people. In tourist destinations in Hainan, you can still see many handicrafts made of tortoiseshell, which is heartbreaking. Let's return the beauty to the tortoises and the vitality to the coast.  

There are four species of sea turtles currently living in the world's oceans: the leatherback turtle, the lizard turtle, the sea turtle, and the hawksbill turtle. The leatherback turtle is the "king of turtles" and the "giant" in the turtle family. And the hawksbill turtle tested the "dwarf" in the sea turtle family, which is about 50 centimeters long, weighs about 50 centimeters, and weighs about 45 kilograms, knowing that it only weighs a few tens of kilograms.

The yellow brown back armor of hawksbill turtles is mixed with black spotted patterns, like a roof covered with glass tiles, with a beautiful luster and pleasing to the eye. hawksbill turtles live in tropical and subtropical oceans, especially in coral reefs. Therefore, there are many species in the South China Sea, the islands of fine yarn, Taiwan, and the Penghu Islands in China, and they are occasionally caught in the East China Sea and southern Yellow Sea in summer and autumn.