of the quadrangular section have peritoneal attachments. The cystic portion is
the largest, concave internally, convex on its outer side, and almost flat ventrally.
I t has a pointed conical anterior end, posterior to which, on its inner side, it is joined
by the most anterior portion of the transverse lobe. The gall bladder is situated
in the lower third of the concavity, and is placed dorso-ventrally, its apex appearing
on the ventral aspect. The cystic lobe is attached over the lung, all along its
external border, with the exception of about two inches in its lower portion, and
the attachment runs round its conical anterior end, and is continuous with the
peritoneal fold of the transverse lobe. The third division is more or less quadrangular,
and is the most dorsal of the divisions, and is connected to the dorsal surface
of the apex of the cystic lobe, where it is also united to the transverse lobe.
All its margins are attached, and it sends down a long narrow ribband of liver
substance along the vena cava. The gall duct is rather long and narrow, and after
a course of 3*75 inches it reaches the intestinal wall, along which the duct runs
for T75 inch before it opens internally. There is no perceptible thickening of
the mucous coat of the wall of the intestine where the duct joins it, as in B. thurgi.
The bile is a very dark blackish-green.
The allantoic bladder has the attachments- common to this viscus, its sides
and fundus being quite free. I t is partially divided, and is capacious, but not so
much so as the bladder of B. baska, which is attached to the liver on both sides.
The cloaca! bladders are large, but with very delicate walls, devoid of the villous
processes of B. basJca, the mucous membrane being thrown into a fine mesh work
of loose delicate folds. The internal lobes of the clitoris are blackish-purple, and
closely resemble those of B. baska. The peritoneal canal is wide, and terminates
external to the lobes of the clitoris according to my observations.1 The inner side
of its wall is marked by fine fibrous transverse short bands, with intervening spaces.
The ovaries are yellowish, and about five inches long in one female, which,
although so large, was apparently a virgin. The oviduct was eight inches long and
had never been dilated.
The lung is much longer than the lung of B. baska, from which it is also
distinguished by the most anterior external lobe being deeply divided from the one
behind, and longer than in B. baska. The posterior sac of the inner border is also
much longer than in that species, the two terminal lobes of the two borders being
long sacs.
This species, as will be observed from the foregoing tables, attains to a considerable
size, nearly equalling in dimensions the allied form B. baska. I t is, however,
apparently comparatively rare in the Sunderbunds of Bengal, whence it is brought to
Calcutta along with Batagur. thv/rgi and B. baska to be sold as food to low caste
Hindoos. I t is more plentiful in the north-western portion of the Gangetic system,
extending into Nepal, and it is probably the large species found in the Nerbudda,
and is doubtless one of the forms occurring in the Godavery. lik e B. baska, it
has none of the fierce snapping habits of the Tnonycidce, although it occasionally
1 Journ. -Linn. Soc., Vol. xiv, p. 441.
snaps, making a peculiar barking noise owing to the friction of its hard serrated
jaws against each other. I t appears to be a vegetable-feeder like the other species
of Batagur, but it invariably declines to eat in confinement, perhaps owing to our
ignorance of its natural food.
I t has a remarkable power of sustaining long fasts, as I had a specimen in my
possession which did not eat any food over a period of four months.
Sub-Genus M o r e n ia , Gray.
Apertures of shell only slightly contracted ; alveolar surface of skull very broad
antero-postériorly, and transversely rugulose ; tubercular, with a ridge internal to the
external alveolar margin, but conforming in distribution to the outline of the
latter, from which it is removed to some distance. A deep depression on the
alveolar surface of the premaxillaries. Postérior nares about the middle of the
base of the skull, covered by the shelving alveolar plate.
B a t a g u r (M o r e n ia ) O c e l l a t a , Dum. and B ib . Plates lx and lxi.
Etnys ocellata, D. & B., Erpét. Geni., vol. ii, p. 329, 1835, pi. xv, fig. 1 ; Duméril, Cat. Méthod..
Kept., p. 14, 1851; Gray, Cat. Tort. B.-M. 1844, p. 18; Blyth, Journ. As. Soc., Bengal,
vol. xxii, 1853, p. 645 ; id., I. c., vol. xxiv, 1855, pp. 481, pp. 712 ; ¡Günther, Kept., Brit. Ind.,
1864, p. 22.
Eatagur ocellata, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1856, p. 182, pis. x and x<r ; id., Ann. and Mag. Nat. Eist.,
vol. xix, p. 348, 1857.
Emys berd/morei, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc., Bengal, vol. xxvii, p. 281, 1858 ; id., I. c., vol. xxxii, p. 82.
Kachuga berd/morei, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1869, p. 204; Theobald, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1870, p. 676,
Clemmys ocellata, Strauch. Chelon, Stud., 1862, p. 83; id., Vertheil. Schildkr., 1865. p. 89,pars.
Batagwr berd/morei, Theobald, Journ. Linn. Soc., vol. x, p. 16, 1868 ; Journ. As. Soc., Bengal,
vol. xxxvii, ex. No., 1868, p. 12, pi. , figs. 2.
Morenia berd/morei, Gray, Suppl. Cat. Shd. Rept., B.-M., 1870, p. 6 2 ; id., Hand List, Shd. Rept.
B. M., 1873, p. 55 ; Theobald, Descr. Cat. Rept. Ind., 1876, p. 17.
The adult female shell is a moderately long oval about 8’25 inches in extreme,
length in a straight line, and is high, and well arched transversely. I t is concave on
either side of the first vertebral, and similarly so above thè eighth, ninth and tenth
marginals. The margins are not reverted, nor are they serrated. The sternum is
broad, flat, and keeled from the axilla to the groin. There are distinct indications of
a vertebral ridge on. all the vertebrals, and on the third and fourth plates the ridge
becomes nodose. The nuchal is much longer than broad, and is generally linear,
with the point anterior, although some may be observed with the posterior end
narrower than the anterior. The vertebrals are generally much broader than long,
although in some the length equals the breadth. The first vertebral has its first marginal
borders meeting at an obtuse angle, the lateral margins are generally convex
on the posterior two-thirds, but concave on the anterior third, the breadth, however,
between the anterior angles being little greater than that of the posterior diameter.