36 CHELONIAMYDAS. 



Testudo mydas, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. iii. part i. p. 80, pi. xxii. 

 Chelonia mj-das, Schweig., Prod. Arch. Konigsb., torn. i. p. 412. 

 Caretta esculenta, Merrem, Versuch. eines Syst. der Rept., p. IS. 

 Caretta mydas, Fitzinger, Neue, Class, der Rept., p. 44. 

 Chelonia mydas. Gray, Synop. Rept., p. 52. 



Chelonia m3^das, Dum. et Bib., Hist. Nat. des Rept., tom. ii. p. 558. 

 Green Turtle, Vulgo. 



Description. The shell is subcordiform, broader in front, narrower and slightly 

 notched and serrated behind. Above the neck the anterior margin of the shell is 

 slightly curved inwards, and over the anterior extremities on each side is a similar 

 curvature, much less distinct, and the whole is covered with thirteen vertebral 

 and lateral plates. The anterior vertebral plate is irregularly hexagonal, broad 

 before, narrow behind, with a notch in its posterior margin; the second is narrow, 

 hexagonal, with prominent lateral angles, its posterior border slightly concave, 

 and its anterior with a pointed angle that is received into the first vertebral plate; 

 the third and fourth are also hexagonal, with similar lateral angles, and with their 

 anterior borders but slightly rounded; the fifth is irregularly heptagonal, broader 

 below, narrow and prolonged above. The first lateral plate is irregularly quadri- 

 lateral, rounded in front and below; the second and third are quadrilateral, and 

 so is the fourth, regularly, but smaller. There are twenty-five marginal plates; 

 the nuchal or intermediate is irregularly quadrilateral, its posterior margin twice 

 the extent of the anterior, which is arched inwards; the first marginal is small 

 and triangular, with its basis before and its apex behind, truncate, and joined by 

 a short border to the anterior vertebral; the second marginal is elongated pen- 

 tagonal, and passes in above the first to the anterior vertebral plate; the remaining 

 marginals are very regularly quadrilateral to the eleventh, which is pentagonal, 

 and the twelfth, or supra-caudal, is of trapezoid form. 



The sternum is long, oval, broad, entire, full and rounded before, full and entire 

 but smaller behind. The inter-gular plate is a small, equilateral triangle, with its 

 basis before; the gular are isoceles triangles, with their bases forwards and out- 

 wards; the brachial are elongated quadrilateral, narrowest within; the thoracic 



