it. There is a narrow fissure in the anterior margin of the latter, and internal to
this another, and, from the lower end of its inner margin, a narrow band is given off
which joins with a corresponding narrow band from the quadrate lobule, and as the
two sides of the liver have also the usual connection, there are thus two connecting
bands, as in JPa/ngshura. Where the true connecting band joins the right division, a
long broad bifurcate process passes downwards to receive the vena cava, reaching
down a long way below the spleen which rests to the right of its bifurcation. The
cystic lobe is conical and expanded below, and slightly bifurcate on its posterior lower
margin. The cystic bladder is remarkable for its great length, l tf,75, and for the circumstance
that its anterior (ventral) third is quite free from the liver and projecting
out a long way from its margin. I t is very narrow and tubular, somewhat contracted
when it reaches the margin of the liver, and slightly distended beyond that. I t is
placed transverse to the longitudinal axis of the body. The head of the pancreas is
dose to the pyloric extremity of the stomach. The gland is closely adherent to the
posterior wall of the duodenum, and is narrow and band-like, contracting in extent
from left to right, and having a length of 3*50 inches. The anterior extremity is
the broadest portion of the lung and is rather deeply divided into two lobes. The
posterior end of the lung also terminates in a deep incision, the internal lobe being
moderately large and sac-like. The cloacal bladders are well developed and richly
clad with villous processes. The allantoic bladder is large, very delicate, and partially
divided, as is the case generally with the Bmydidce. After the animal has been
kept for some time out of water and is then immersed, the allantoic bladder becomes
rapidly distended to a great size, with a clear, very pale, watery fluid. The clitoris is
a compact rosette of three pairs of external lobes, with a minute pair internal to the
most proximal pair and a small azygos eminence distal to the former, with a deep
pit beyond it, between the two terminal pairs of external lobes. There is a small
papilla on either side of the termination of the urinal groove, proximal and external
to the first pair of lateral lobes. The area of the clitoris is suffused with a dark
purplish-black pigment.
Twenty specimens of this species have passed under my observation, and the
majority alive. One from the Brahmaputra, four from Dacca in Eastern Bengal, and
the others from the Nerbudda and the Ganges at Allahabad and Eatehgarh. All
these last specimens are young, while two of the Dacca examples are adults, and one
adolescent. The species probably ranges up the Ganges to the base of the Himalaya,
and it has a wide distribution through the Brahmaputra.1 I have not received
it from Burma, or Arracan, where it is represented by B. trvoittata. The Batagv/r
referred to by Blyth under the name of B. dhongoka, as coming from these localities,
and also by Gray, was doubtless B. trivittata.
I kept two specimens alive in water for some time, and found that the younger
example (6 inches long) to which my observations were by force of circumstances
restricted, used to breathe every seven minutes. Its nostrils were simply protruded
above the surface of the water, and retained in that position for about
1 Griffith obtained specimens in Assam.
half a minute, during which it made a long expiration, followed by a deep inspiration,
the creature then slowly subsiding, tail backwards, to the bottom. The animals,
unless they were much irritated, never attempted to bite, but when so treated, they
sluggishly seized any object put in their way holding it between their jaws with
considerable tenacity, at the same time withdrawing the head into the shell. They
moved about on the ground with considerable agility, supporting their heavy bodies
erect on their legs, like a land tortoise.
There seems to be little doubt that this species is a vegetable-feeder, as I placed
in the vessel in which the specimens were kept quantities of the common pond
weeds of Calcutta, which they eat freely, and which I removed from their intestines
in large dark green masses, whilst the fish and prawns that were supplied to them
were never eaten.
- f B atag ttb l i n e a t a , Gray.
Emys dhor, Gray {pars), Syn. Rept., 1831, p. 20.
Emys dentata, Gray, Syn. Rept., 1831, {vide errata), plates viii and ix, ju v .; 111. Ind. Zool völ ii
1884, tab. 58, fig. 1 only.
Emys lineata, Gray,. Syn. Rept., 1831, p. 23; Cat. Tort., B. M., 1844, p. 16; Dum. & Bib., Erpet.
Gdnl., t. ii,.1835, p. 335 {pars) ; Dumeril, Cat. Method. Col. Rept., 1851, p. 15, pars*
Emys kachuga, Gray, 111. Ind. Zool., vol. i, 1832,-tab. 74.
Batagur baska, Gray {pars), Cat. Shd. Rept., 1853, p. 85.
Batagur Imeata, Gray, Cat. S i, Rept., 1858, p. 83, pi. xvii ; Günther, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1861
p. 214; Theobald, Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xxxvii, 1868, ex. No.> p. 12.
Batagur dhongoka, Gray, Cat. Sh. Rept.,.1855, p. 86 {pars), plate xxxvi, skull only.
Batagw tentoria, Gray {pars), Cat. Sh. Rept., 1855, p. 37 (specimen c.)
Batagw dllioti, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1862, p. 264; id., Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1863, vol. xii
p. 75; Günther, Rept. of Brit. Ind., 1868, p. 40, pi. iii, figs. A, Al.
Clemmys Imeata, Strauch, Yerth. der Schildkr., 1865, p. 87.
Clemmys ellioti, Strauch, Yerth. der Schildkr., 1865, p. 88.
Kachvga hardwickii, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1869, p. 202.
Kachuga lineata, Gray, Suppl. Cat. Sh. Rept., 1870, p. 56.
Kachuga dentata, Gray, Suppl. Cat. Sh. Rept., 1870, p. 56.
Batagur trilineata, Gray {pars), Suppl. Cat. Sh. Rept., 1870, p. 55.
Utokgoka hardwickii, Gray, Suppl. Cat. Sh. Rept., 1870, p. 57 (pars) ; App. Cat. Sh. Rept., 1872;
p. -18, pars.
Batagw kachvga, Theobald, Descr. Cat. Rept., B. Ind., 1876, p. 19, pars.
Dr. Gray, in his work entitled Synopsis EeptMum, published January 1831,
described this species under the name of Emys dhor (p. 20), and referred to the
111. Ind. Zool. for a figure of the species. On looking over this last mentioned work, ■
it will be found that no Chelonian is figured under such a name. The explanation,
however, is to be found in the list of errata appended to the first mentioned work
before the Index, in which we read, “ p. 20, lines 31 and 36, for dhor read dentata.”
Bearing this in mind, and turning to the list of Plates in the Syn. Kept., we find
two figures given of the species (Tables viii and ix) under its corrected name
Emys dentata. Referring again to the 111. Ind. Zool.,1 we find three figures and
1 Vol. II, 1831, t. 58.
X i