ing parts is yellowish, with a famt bluish tinge. The upper surface of the shell
is a pale olive-brown, almost olive-grey, with a broad black line along the vertebral
ridge and another along the upper margin of the costals, the margin of the
shell being also black. The under surface is yellowish, with a greenish hue. The
iris is a very pale pink, with an inner bright golden margin, but there is no spot.
The daws are brownish at the base and yellowish homy at the tips.
I have not observed any difference in colouring between the males and females.
This species does not appear to attain to the size of the other species of Batagur,
the largest male and female I have observed measuring as follows:—
mtt of B. duvaucelU, D. $ S.
Length o f carapace in straight line
„ of plastron in „ „
Greatest breadth across shell
Axillary breadth
Inguinal „ . . .
Depth through second vertebral
9 5
Inches. Inches.
16-00 8-6
13-90
14-25 7-3
5-80 2-50
5*65 2-90
m s m 3-3
All the males that I have observed have been small, and distinguishable from
the females by the great length of their tails, dependent, as in other Batagurs, not on
a variation in the number of the vertebrae, but in the elongation of the bodies of the
vertebrae, the tail performing in them the important function of making room for,
and supporting, the external organ of generation. Whether they are persistently
smaller than the females, I am not in a position to say, although the evidence would
seem to point in the direction of their being always smaller, as the males of the subgeneric
form Pa/ngshu/ra certainly are; but that the males of this large Batagur
have the same disproportionate size to the females as prevails among the Pa/ngshures,
I have not sufficient materials to determine. So little is known regarding the laws
which regulate the growth of the shell of the Chelonia, it would be premature to
hazard any decided opinion as to whether or not the closure of the costal and
other fontanelles indicates cessation of growth. I am disposed to think that growth
does not cease with closure of the fontanelles.
Dr. Gray has elevated this form to generic rank under the name Bhongoka,
distinguishing it from his new genus Kachuga by a single dermic character, viz.,
the elongated and contracted form of the first vertebral, which shield is nearly
square in Kachuga, but there is not a single feature in the internal anatomy, nor
in the structure of the skull of Batagur Imeata (which may be taken as a typical
example of that author’s genus Kachuga), by which to separate it generically from
the very closely allied species Batagur dmaucelli. Dr. Gray retains the genus
Batagur for the single species, B. baska, which is distinguished by having four
claws on both fore and hind feet, and by the osseous ridges of the palate and
mandible being more strongly developed than in either B. lineata or B . duva/ucelli.
But it would seem that these skull differences only merit sub-generic importance,
for the skull of B. Imeata shows distinct indications of the second and hinder
palatal ridge, while in the lower jaw there is a broad concave surface behind
its ridge, only differing from the posterior groove of B. baska in its posterior wall
being less defined, and the sides of the longitudinal groove less developed. In B.
baska this central groove is prolonged to the symphysis, owing to the ridge of
either side meeting at that point; but in B. Imeata the two ridges join behind
the symphysis, to which they are connected by a sharp central ridge, but this is
only a modification of the type of structure which is common to both skulls,
and which would hardly seem to merit the importance Dr. Gray has attached to
it. Moreover, in B. dmaucelli (not the skull figured by Dr. Gray under that
name, which appears to be B. Imeata), there is a still further modification of
the mandible, while the palatal surface is nearly the same as in B. Imeata. In
B . dmaucelli there is-no groove behind the ridge, which is broad and flat without
any trace of a longitudinal groove, but the ridges, meeting as in B. Imeata, are
prolonged by a central ridge on to the symphysis. We have thus in B . Imeata,
a form intermediate in these skull characters between B. baska on the one hand,
in which they have their highest expression, and B. duvaucelU on the other, in
which they are least marked. Were it not that B. baska is so closely related in its
internal anatomy and the structure of its skull to B. Imeata and B. dmaucelU,
more importance might be attached to the absence of a fifth claw on its fore foot, but
this is little more than a dermic character, and not at all comparable to the absence
of a digit, which, when it does occur, is generally considered as of generic
importance.
The skull is closely allied to the skull of B . lineata, being much broader and
flatter in the frontal region and between the orbits than in B. baska, but less so than
in B. lineata, with a much shorter and broader snout, with the pre-frontals only
slightly upturned. I t is distinguished from the skull of B. Imeata by the much
greater breadth of the pterygoid region of the skull. The vomer also is much nearer
the anterior end of the basisphenoid than in B . lineata. The internal nares are
oblong in B. Imeata, with the palatine margin slightly, if anything, inwardly convex,
whereas in B. duvaucelU these margins are outwardly convex, which gives an oval
contour to the conjoint openings. The palate also wants the third ridge which is
only indicated in B. lineata, and the longitudinal broad eminence that occurs
between the traces of the third ridge. But the most distinguishing feature is the
total absence of the broad concavity and the longitudinal furrow that occur in
B. Imeata, posterior to the first alveolar ridge of the mandible. In B. duvaucelU, the
first alveolar ridge is broad and flat on its summit, without any furrow behind it.
The stomach of a female measuring 8"-25 in the length of its carapace has an
extent of 5*25 inches along the lower curve. The small intestine, which is of about
one-fourth the capacity of the large intestine, measures 35-75 inches in length. The
latter begins by a sudden enlargement which projects more on one side than the other.
I t has a length of 17'50 inches.
The dorsal division of the left lobe of the liver does not overlap the stomach,
but is wholly enclosed in the bend, and the ventral division only partially overlaps