TORTOISES, TERRAPINS, AND TURTLES. 11 



32. TRIONYX GANGETICUS, Cmier. 

 Tab. LI. (young). 

 Trionyx gangeticiis. Gray, Cat. Sh. Rept. Suppl. p. 97. 

 H^vB. India; Ganges; Pegii. 



•' In hunting for the soft Turtles in the hill-streams the men use a long iron fork, such as an old 

 iron ramrod sharpened at one end, or a stout strip of bamboo, which they thrust down for a foot or 

 two in the soft vegetable sludge and decayed leaves found along the margin of deep pools in the hill- 

 streams. If the fork touches a Tm*tle concealed below, the motion of the animal is felt : a cautious 

 examination is then made with the hand, and a fish-hook is cleverly inserted in the soft part of the 

 mantle about the tail, then another, and even three or four, if the animal is large. A steady haul is 

 now made, and out comes the Turtle, wildly floundering and snapping at every thing within its reach 

 with pertinacious ferocity. 



" Sometimes, when the animal is large, or the water deep, a stake is held over the animal's back, 

 and, with a few well-delivered blows of a maUet, driven through both shells. "Woe betide the limb, 

 however, which comes within reach of the infuriated animal ! I saw the top of one man's toe bitten 

 clean off by a Trionyx Fhayrei which was being ' staked ; ' and as these animals are both active and 

 ferocious, it is always advisable to send a bullet through their brain as soon as possible. So tenacious 

 of life, however, are these creatures, that their heads bite vigorously after being completely dissevered 

 from their bodies. 



"The natives eat all sorts indiscriminately; and perhaps the flesh of even the highly carnivorous 

 soft Turtles may be palatable." — Theobald, Journal of the Limiean Society, vol. x. p. 8. 



33. TRIONYX LABIATTJS, Bell. 

 Tab. LII.-LIV. 



Tyrse nilotica, Gray, Cat. Sh. Rept. Suppl. p. 108. 



Hab. Africa : (North) Nile ; (West) Sierra Leone and Eernandovas River. 



The skeleton (Tab. LIV.) figured by Mr. Bell is in the Museum of the Cambridge Philosophical 

 Society ; and I can see no difference between it and the skeletons from the NUe, Little was known of 

 the development of the dorsal shield of these animals when Mr. Bell wrote ; and he seemed to regard 

 the length of the free part of the rib, which is dependent upon the youth of the specimen, as a specific 

 character. 



