haska, the broader head, much shorter snout and one-ridged palate of the animal at
once serve to distinguish it from B. basket.
The male of JB. lineata is known to me only from two specimens, one a
perfect animal in the flesh which I had alive, and the other a shell procured at
Allahahad by Mr. John Cockbum, who informs me that he has noticed the remarkable
difference in size between the sexes of this and other species of fresh water
tortoises.
The male is not adult, but its shell is in the same stage of growth as a female
having a shell 16 inches long, and yet this male is only 9 inches long, about half
the size of the female.
Measurements of male and female examples of JB. lineata.
l a » < s «
Extreme length of carapace, straight line
6 : 1 1 1 ' 9 ' 9 • Q 9
8*00 9*00 1575
Extreme breadth across seventh marginal . . . . 7*50 8*00 13*50 14*75
Length, plastron to middle of anal notch . . . . 7*20 800 14*65
Greatest depth through second vertebral . . . . 350 3*75 6*40
Axillary breadth . . . . . . 3*00 3*25 5*95 5*95.
Inguinal „ . . . . .- 2*95 . 3*20 5*95 5*95 5*90 8*0
The vertebral plates of the two males are exactly alike, and have the exact form
of the same plates of those females with the broader vertebrals. The vertebral ridge
can be traced along the back, culminating in the hinder end of the second and third
plates as a more prominent ridge not continuous along the two plates and not so highly
prolonged on to the fourth vertebral. The ridges along the sides of the plastron are
yet distinctly visible. The shell is a moderately long, rather regularly oval, and the
posterior margins are slightly reflected, and the caudal notch is small, but distinct,
and the dentation of the hinder margin of the shell is stall decidedly present. In
life, the shell was a dark olive, with a slightly rufescent tinge over the anterior
portion of the dorsal surface, the under surface being rosy-red, the margins on
the same surface being suffused with bluish. The limbs were of the colour of the
upper surface of the shell, but the large plates running along the external margin
of each limb were bright red. The upper surface of the head, from the nostrils backwards
between the eyes, to near the occiput, was brilliant red, and from the hinder
margin of this area, four broad similarly coloured lines ran backward, two on either
side of the mesial line, diminishing in intensity and size from before backwards.
A broad deep black band arose from the posterior half of the upper and posterior
borders of the eye, disappearing a little behind the head on the side of the neck.
Prom the broadest part of this black band, another red band proceeded along the
side of the neck to the shell. A yellow band occurred immediately below the black
band and ran a short way along the side of the head, with a narrow black band
below it, under which was a still narrower yellow line from the angle of the
mouth, with a broad bluish-black area below it again, tending to become linear
posteriorly. The front of the nose, below the nostrils, was red, and the rest of the
horny covering of the upper jaws was bright yellow, with a blackish-green line
along its side to the angle of the mouth. The horny covering of the lower jaw
was yellow, suffused with greenish-black, with a symmetrical greenish spot on its
inner margin. A few red lines occurred behind the yellow and black lines below
the eye, and the throat, internal to the lower jaw, was Twa.rlrp.fl by two brilliantly red
oblong marks, placed opposite each other. On the upper surface of the neck, the
ground colour was whitish; the rest of the skin of the neck, around the fore limbs
and hind limbs, and along and around the tail, were suffused with red.
In a young specimen which agrees exactly with the figure in the Syn. Rept.
and with the upper figure of 111. Ind. Zool,, the vertebral plates are rather equally
broad throughout, but this is a character of nearly all Batagurs in youth, although,
at the same time, the characters and features of the plates are preserved. The ridge
culminates on the second and third vertebrals in two almost prominent spines.
The posterior external angles of the marginals, from the seventh backwards, form a
kind of toothed line, and the caudal notch is small, but very distinct. The ridges
along the plastron are well defined. The neck is marked exactly as the specimen
last described, and considering it in all its details, there can be no doubt but that
the Batagur described as Bmys dentata, Gray, is the young of Bmys kachugaf Gray.
This small specimen measured—
Length o f carapace, straight line . . . . . . . . . . . . 3*90
Extreme breadth across seventh marginal . . . . . . . . . . 3*80
Length of plastron to middle of anal n o t c h .................................................................... 3*47
Greatest breadth through second vertebral ................................... 2*80
Axillary breadth ........................................................................................ ........
Inguinal „ . 1-35
Its palate has the same character as that of the previously described female
and male.
A shell from the Godavery river obtained by Mr. W. T. Blanford, appears to me
to be a young female, the only very young example of the sex that has come under
my observation.
I t measures—
Length of carapace, straight line . . . ■ ............................................................................... .........
Extreme breadth across seventh marginal . . . . . . . . . . 5~85
Length of plastron to middle of anal n o t c h ............................................... '...............................................g.jg
Greatest breadth through second vertebral . . . . . , . _ , 2'o0
Axillary b readth.................................................................... 2*25
Inguinal ................................................................................................................................................ 2*10
This shell has all the characters of the preceding young shell, and the vertebrals
are so alike the vertebrals of adult B. lineata that this specimen must be regarded as
an example of the species. I t is more rounded than the male shell, and in this
presents the character of a female, which I believe it to have been. The denticula-
tion of the hinder part of the shell is still marked.
I have removed the skulls from the three smaller female specimens of the
table of measurements p. 750, and they agree in every particular with the skull