396 . Mr.Bzrr on two new Genera of Land Tortoises. 
Description. Shell gibbous, ovate, emarginate before, slightly 
expanded over the hinder feet. Scuta striated, black, with 
a few broad yellow radiations, which are narrower at the 
area, increasing in breadth towards the circumference ; in 
many of them a dentated yellow margin. The first vertebral 
scutum pentagonal, broader than it is long, the lateral mar- 
gins parallel, anteriorly truncate; the second, third, and 
fourth hexagonal; the fifth irregularly quadrilateral: the 
first costal seutum trapezoidal, very irregular; the second 
and third pentagonal; the fourth quadrate : marginal scuta 
24, consisting of 11 pairs, and an anterior and posterior 
7 single one; the anterior small, linear, emarginate at the 
apex; the posterior very broad, quadrate, inflexed. Ster- 
num of an uniform yellow colour, nearly as long as the 
upper shell, and very broad; the anterior lobe, which is 
covered by the gular* and humeral scuta, slightly emargi- 
nate, very moveable, connected with the body of the ster- 
num by a ligament, and capable of entirely closing the 
anterior opening of the shell; when closed, the margin is 
considerably within that of the upper shell : the abdominal 
portion of the sternum very large ; the sterno-costal suture 
extending from the fourth to the seventh pairs of marginal 
scuta inclusive; the anterior margin of the pectoral scuta 
overlapping the posterior margin of the humeral, so as to 
conceal the joint: the posterior lobe of the sfernum broad 
* [n order to avoid unnecessary repetition, and to render descriptions of these 
animals more intelligible by a fixed nomenclature, I have applied to the six pairs of 
sternal scuta the following names, expressive of their relative situation with regard to 
the different parts of the animal. The first pair I have termed gular, the second hu- 
* meral, the third pectoral, the fourth abdominal, the fifth femoral, the sixth caudal. Of 
— the two pairs of scuta situated at the junction of the sternum with the upper shell, —I 
have assigned to the anterior the name of post-humeral, and to the posterior that of 
— ante-femoral. 
and 
