those small, but intimately allied forms, and, moreover, the character does not appear
to hold good even among the African species.
Great stress has been laid on the separation of the pectoral plates of Man-
ouria, hut as I have elsewhere shown,1 this character is not persistently present
in animals undoubtedly specifically identical and referable to the so-called Man-
ouria emys, in which the division of the epidermic caudal plate was considered
sufficient evidence of this land tortoise being an Emyde. Since I pointed out the
variability in thè pectoral plates of Testudo emys, I have met with two instances
in Testudo elegans of the separation from one another òf the pectoral plates, so
that my view that this phenomenon is aspribable to variation, and is not indicative
of generic difference in structure, is strengthened. I have never met with a
divided caudal in any other land tortoise than Testudo emys, and I have on no
occasion found it united in that species. I have here shown, however, that the
nuchal plate of T. elongata is occasionally absent, although in the great majority
of specimens it is well developed, so that it would also appear that too much importance
should not he attached to this shield. The absence or presence of a nuchal,
the division of a caudal plate, or the separation of the pectoral plates from one
another, has each in itself about the same structural significance as the absence of a
claw in the fore foot of a Batagur, or the division or non-division of the anal plate
of an Ophidian. Underlying these epidermic modifications, we find a perfectly
stable osseous frame-work, true to a generic type, common to all those forms I have
indicated among land tortoises.
T e s t u d o e l o n g a t a , B l y t h .
Testudo elongata, Blyth, Joum. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xxii, pp. 689-40, 1858 ; id., op. cit., vol. xxiv,
p. 712, 1855; id., op. cit., vol. xxv, p. 448, 1856 ; id., op. cit., vol.xxxii, 1863, p. 88, footnote;
Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1856, p. 181, pi. ix ; id., op. cit., 1861, p. 139 ; id., Ann. and Mag.
Nat. Hist., vol. yi, 3rd ser., 1860, p. 218; Gunther, Kept., Brit. Ind., 1864, p. 8 ; Strauch,
Vertheil. Schildkr., 1865, p. 27 ; Theobald, Cat. Kept. Joum. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xxxvii,
ex. No., 1868, p. 9 ; Joum. Linn. Soc. Zool., vol. x, 1868, p. 6 ; Descr. Cat. Kept., B. Ind.,
p. 3, 1876. ■
Peltastes elongatns, Gray, Suppl. Cat. Sh. Rept. B. M., 1870, pp. 9, 10 ; App. Cat. Sh. Kept., p. 15,
1878; id., Hand-List and Sh. Kept., 1876, p. 6.
Testudo elongata, Gray, Strauch, Chelon. Stud., 1862, p. 22.
The male is elongately oval, with straight sides, very slightly expanded at the
seventh and eighth marginals, the upper surface of the shell being flat. The anterior
surface of the shell is concave over the first and second, partially over the third marginals,
and the caudal plate is produced downwards, slightly below the level of the
anals, there being also a flattening of the sides of the last vertebral. The depth of
the male through the third vertebral is one-third the length of the carapace. The
anal notch is broad, and its margins divergent. The tail of the male is broad at the
base, and long.
1 Proc. Zool. Soc., Lond., 1872, p. 132.
The females, in 86 living specimens, were all smaller than the males,1 not so
elongated, deeper, with round backs and sides, and with the caudal plate not
prolonged so far downwards as „in the male. There is also, generally, a nodose-like
ridge on the first Vertebral, and the anal notch is more crescentic in form than in
the male, in which its margins are straight. The tail of the female is much shorter
than that of the male.
The young is more rounded than the female, the posterior margin of the shell
is serrated, and the first and second marginals have their posterior external angles
terminating as outwardly and backwardly projecting spines, similar to those on the
posterior margin of the shell.
The nuchal2 plate is occasionally absent, and is very variable in size and form.
In some it is triangular, almost ungulate, and as broad as long, while from this
extreme on the one hand, it dwindles down through examples of every intermediate
grade into a narrow linear shield, hardly perceptible in some instances. The first
vertebral is as long as broad. In some, its lateral margins are straight and divergent,
so that it is broader anteriorly than posteriorly, while in others they are
slightly externally convex and the shield is as broad in front as behind. The first
marginal borders are anteriorly convergent, and the posterior margin is straight
and broad. The second and third vertebráis are alike in form, and much broader
than long, the breadth exceeding the length by one-half. The costal margins are
nearly equal in length, and the anterior and posterior borders are transversely
straight, the anterior border of the second being considerably narrower than the corresponding
margins of the third and fourth shields. The latter plate is not so much
broader than long, as contrasted with the former shields, and its hinder margin is
only a little more than half the breadth of its anterior margin. The fifth is less than
one-half of its length, broader than long, and all its margins are straight, the fourth
costal equalling the caudal margin in its extent.
In the young, a distinct ridge occurs along the marginals between the axilla, and
groin, and, in adult females, it exists interruptedly, while all trace of it is lost in the
male. In the young, the guiar plates project slightly beyond the postgulars as two
rather nodose prominences. These shields are generally unsymmetrical, one being
larger than the other, and their relative length to the postgulars is variable, as they
sometimes equal the length of these shields, and at others exceed them.8 The
pectorals exceed the postgulars, but their breadth is subject. to variation, and the
plates are occasionally unsymmetrical, one being considerably broader than the
other. The pectoral is the largest shield, and nearly equals the postgular and
guiar. The preanal equals the guiar and one-half of the postgular suture. The
anal suture is very short, about one-fourth of the length of the gulars, and it is so
reduced in adult males as almost to be absent. The anal notch in the young is
1 Hutton (Jotirn. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. vi, p. 689,1837), in his observation on T. actinodes, states that the female
of that species considerably exceeds the male in size.
3 In 86 living individuals of both sexes, the nuchal was absent only in four cases.
3 In an adult male they exceed the postgular by more than one-half of its length.