The carapace is olive-brown of various shades, sometimes very dark and at
others very light. Each plate of the carapace is very finely reticulated with black
lines, and is occupied by a large blackish-brown rounded spot surrounded by a pale
yellowish-brown zone, the outer margin of which is blackish-brown. The central
black spots on the vertebráis occur on the ridge-nodosities, and on the first four
shields they are linear; on the fifth the spot has the shape of the shield. The black
spots become relatively smaller with age and more feebly marked. The margin of the
shell is yellowish, and the whole under surface yellowish; the osseous sutures shining
through the plates as lighter yellow lines. I have a specimen before me (a male)
with the sternal plates brownish, but this appears to have been produced by some
salt of iron.
The general colour of the head is dark greyish-brown, browner on the upper
surface. The large vertical plate is olive greyish, with two indistinct dark longitudinal
parallel lines on it, below the eye; sometimes a small yellowish spot before the eye,
the tip of the snout below the nostrils being obscurely marked with yellowish. A pale
greenish-yellow narrow line along the upper margin of the snout, over the eye, continued
on to the neck, and margined with blackish. A similarly coloured line from
behind the eye over the tympanum, on to the neck, also margined with blackish. A
like, but more indistinct line on the under surface of the rami of the mandible,
slightly inwardly convergent and dilated posteriorly, termináting before the angle of
the mouth. Skin of the neck pale brownish, passing into light grey. Limbs pale
brownish-leaden with a tinge of olive. Tail dark brown above, with obscure yellowish
longitudinal lines.
After a comparison of the specimens on which these observations rest with the
types of JE. ocellata, in the Paris Museum, I do not hesitate to regard them as
examples of O. ocellata, I). & B., although the types of this species were said by
Duméril and Bibron, and by M. M. Duméril to have been obtained by Belanger
in Bengal.
Having forwarded specimens of the ocellated JBatagurs of Bengal and of Burma
to Prof. Peters, he wrote to me saying that he considered the Burmese species to be
the true E . ocellata, I). & B. As I was in Paris at the time Prof. Peters made this
suggestion, I compared the types of JB. ocellata with the accurate drawings of the
Burmese and Bengal species reproduced in this work, and arrived at the conclusion
that Prof. Peters’ identification was correct.
I have collected on a large scale in Eastern Bengal, but on ño occasion have I
obtained a living animal corresponding to the ocellated tortoise of Burma, and only
on four occasions have I succeeded in obtaining living examples of the new form,
with which I have great pleasure in connecting Professor Peters’ name. I am therefore
disposed to consider that some mistake arose regarding the locality from which
Belanger’s specimens were obtained, as they certainly correspond to the Burmese
species and not to that rare and beautiful form JB. ‘petersi.
The tongue is small, and grooved longitudinally on its hinder part, and it is
separated from the larynx by a deep furrow, convex from behind forwards; the
laryngeal orifice, passing forwards and downwards into the furrow, is opposite the
longitudinal lingual fold. One-half of the orifice thus looks forwards, and the half
posterior to it upwards. Besides its fine thickened border, the posterior half of the
orifice has a rounded ridge of mucous membrane on either side, as in JB. ihurgi; the
two, being in contact behind and anteriorly divergent, form a triangle with the base
anteriorly. The anterior fourth of the oesophagus, from behind the larynx, is very
smooth, although a few minute papillae may be detected; but behind this a few
large papillae appear arranged more or less in longitudinal lines, and increase in
numbers as they are traced backwards, becoming more villous and more numerous,
suddenly ceasing on the latter portion of the oesophagus where they are thrown
into very fine free folds, and in this respect it also resembles JB. thvrgi. The
stomach is partially overlapped by the ventral portion of the right hepatic lobe;
but much less so by the dorsal portion. The stomach contracts much towards the
pylorus, the duodenum presenting a dilatation immediately behind the pylorus. The
stomach, in an adult female, measured six inches, the small intestine 31 inches, and
the large intestine 14 inches. The gall duct opened four inches from the pylorus.
The first two inches of the duodenum have the mucous coat thrown into finp.
anastomosing lamellar-like folds, containing finer folds within them; but the portion
intervening between this and the orifice of the gall duct has the folds more longitudinal
and distinct, but before the latter orifice they are distinct longitudinal l a .m p l l a . r
folds, with finer intervening folds extending over the whole length of the small
intestine.
The large intestine commences by a sudden dilatation, which is more capacious
on one side than the other, indicating a caecum. The first six inches are doubled on
each other, as in BJardella. The inside of the large intestine is smooth, the folds
of the small intestine abruptly terminating at its commencement.
The transverse connecting portion of the liver is much deeper from before backwards
than in any other JBatagur I have examined, and is transversely narrower.
The two veins from the right and left divisions are thus very near each other, and the
compact appearance of the gland is heightened by the absence of any of the long
processes or appendages that distinguish the liver of JB. thurgi. The dorsal division
of the left lobe has its left border completely overlapping itself, and its right lower
border terminates in two short processes. The notch of the ligament is deep and
crescentic, and situated at the right extremity of the lower border of the ventral
division of this lobe. The lower border of the connecting lobe is notched in its
centre, and this, along with the notch of the ligament, and another notch where the
connecting lobe joins the right division of the gland, present two marginal processes
between the two lateral notches. At the commencement of the upper posterior
border of the right lobe there is a short process. The right and transverse lobes
are flat on their under surfaces, and the gall bladder lies along the inner border of
the former lobe, close to the division between it and the latter. I t is on the same
plane as the under surface, and does not project beyond the liver substance as in
other allied tortoises.