In eating, the head is held downwards, and the animal appears to he incapable
of feeding when the head is raised. The front legs are much used to push the food
into the mouth.
This species is- very prevalent in Lower Burma, and it ranges southwards
through Tenasserim, eastwards to Cambodja, and northwards to Arracan, and there is
this curious fact connected with its'.distribution, that it occurs also at Chybassa, in
Singhbhum, on the table land of India, in the district of Chota Nagpur, from’
whence I procured specimens from Colonel Dalton.
I t may probably extend from Burma through Assam and along the Terai
region to the west, as Major Kinloch informs me that on one occasion he found a
tortoise alive in the Terai at Julpaigorie, and which he identified with a drawing
of this species which I showed him. In Upper Burma its place is taken by
T. platynota.
This species is known to the Burmese as the Laik Nakhonga, or red-nosed
tortoise, and in Arracan it is called the hill tortoise.
T e s t u d o p l a t y n o t a , Blyth.
Testudo platynotus, Blyth, Joum. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xxxii, 1863, p. 83; Theobald, Joum. Linn.
Soc., vol. x, 1868, p. 7 ; Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, ex. No., vol. xxxvii, 1868, p. 9 • Descr. Cat.
Bept., Brit. Ind., 1876/ p. 2.
Testudo elegans, Giinth., var. Sept., Brit. Ind., 1864, p. 5.
Peltastes platynotus, Gray, Suppl. Cat. Shd. Kept., 1870, p. 8 ; id., Proc. Zool. Soc., Lond., 1870,
p^ 655, plate xxxiii; id., App. Cat. Shd. Kept., p. 5,1872.
This species is closely allied to the land tortoise of Southern India and Ceylon,
T. actinodes, and which it resembles in having no nuchal plate. I t is distinguished
from T. elongata by the absence of the nuchal, by its less elongated and more
rounded form and relatively smaller feet, especially the front feet, which are the
same as in 21 actinodes. -
The vertebral plates are the same as in I 7, actinodes, but the areolae of the plates,
as a rule, are not so high as in that species, especially as in those found in Sindh.
I t is, however, strongly resembled in this respect by Ceylon examples.
The Burmese land tortoise, which Blyth described under the name of T. platynota,
was based on three carapaces, which he found in use in the Bangoon bazaar
for baling out oil from earthen vessels. He remarks that the shells in question
were conspicuously distinguished by being quite flat on the back, and that the
carapace was much broader, but not so high as in T. stellata and T. geometrica,
and he considered that the species was more obviously distinct from the two latter
than these are from each other. He mentions that he had not seen the plastron,
but yet Dr. Gray remarked that Blyth did not describe the plain underside which
he had found in ail the specimens he had examined.
The specimens referred to this supposed species were all characterized, as in
T. actinodes, by the absence of a nuchal, and from our knowledge of the form.
generally assumed by the females of this small group of radiated land tortoises, it is
probable that the rounded form of the types is to be ascribed to their being
examples of the female. There can be no doubt but that the plates are more
flattened than in T. actinodes, but I cannot avoid thinking that the shells in
question had been purposely selected on account of their little nodose character
which made them more suited for the baling of oil. This would appear to be a
legitimate supposition, as I have observed tortoises of the T. actinodes group at
Bhamó, and have since received them from other parts of Burma, with the nodes
raised as in some examples of the Indian species.
The areolar nodes and the lines of growth are the subjects of considerable
variation as regards the extent to which they are developed in the allied species,
T. actinodes, as some shells are almost smooth, and without marked nodes or lines,
while in others both are well developed. I t would appear that when both, or one
or other, are present to a marked degree, the characteristic colouring prevails. In
the types of T. platynota, although the areolar nodes are low, not rising above the
level of the shell, the lines are strongly present, also the anastomosing yellow lines
on the dark-brown back-ground. I have, however, as I have already stated*
observed land tortoises referable to T. platynota, Blyth, which have distinct nodes
on the upper surface of the shell, but at the same time not to the marked extent
that occurs in the majority of examples referable to T. actinodes, although there
are examples of the latter quite as little raised at the nodes as the most nodular
specimens of T. platynota.
Dr. Gray has remarked that the leading character of this species is to be found
in the smooth plastron, but I have observed the sternum of T. actinodes not
unfrequently perfectly smooth.
Theobald, who was inclined to regard it as a local race of T. actinodes
(T. elegans), states that it is uniformly larger jthan the Indian species, but I have
examples of T. actinodes as large as it. Tortoises have such a capacity of growth,
that difference in size, unless very marked, is of little significance as regards species.
Young male.—Shell elongated; sides at middle almost straight, highly arched;
moderately flat above over the vertebráis. No reversion of the posterior marginals as
in T. actinodes. Plastron concave; nuchal absent. The front vertebral shield is
shorter and broader than in T. actinodes, whereas the second, third and fourth
vertebráis are broader, and the caudal plate is broader and much less pointed
than in T. actinodes. The gulars are small and very slightly divergent, and the
external margin of the postgulars is less bulging: the pectorals appear to be
somewhat relatively narrower. The areolae of the preanals do not project as in
T. actinodes. The anal notch is much the same as in T. actinodes. The tail is long,
with a small claw at its extremity.
The female has a slightly concave plastron, and her shell is not so elongated as
in the male, and is more roundedly arched from side to side, and there is a slight
expansion at the posterior marginals. The tail is short, with a smaller claw than
in the male.
s 4