iv INTRODUCTION. 



difficulty Mr. Sotheran applied to me ; and feeling that it was much to be regretted that 

 such beautiful and accurate plates should be lost to science, and considering that such 

 minutely accurate and detailed figures would not require to be accompanied by a description, 

 I agreed to add a few lines of text to each Plate, containing first the original name that 

 Mr. Bell placed upon them, then the name used in the Museum Catalogue of Tortoises, so 

 as to bring the nomenclature to the level of our present knowledge of these animals, at 

 the same time referring to a work in which the synonymy of the species is to be found. 

 I have also added a few lines on the habits and manners of the species from works 

 of authors who have had the opportunity of observing them in their native country. 



Many of the specimens figured and the rest of Mr. Bell's Collection of Reptiles are now 

 to be found in the Anatomical and Zoological Museum at Cambridge. 



JOHN EDWARD GRAY. 



British Museum, 

 November 20th, 1871. 



