TESTUDO HORSFIELDII. 7 



instead of doing so in the evening as in the hot weather, they chose the middle of the day, remaining out 

 for two or three hours basking in the sun, and retiring again to concealment in the afternoon. 



" The marking of the shells is the same in both sexes, and they are only to be distinguished by the 

 difference in size and structure of the sternum and in the unequal length of tail, that of the male being 

 about twice the length of that of the female — the latter, indeed, possessing almost none. 



" The eggs of this tortoise are pure white, of an oblong-oval form, the ends being of equal size, and not 

 smaller at one extremity as in the eggs of birds. The shell is thin, and 1 inch 8 lines in length by 

 4 inches in lateral girth. 



" As they increase in age they lose the beautiful radiated appearance of the shell ; and, indeed, it 

 frequently peels off in scales even when they are in their prime. I have an old male which has lost its 

 yellow rays, or rather which has lost the whole of the outer coating of the shell and is now of a dirty 

 yellowish colour, the carapace being cracked and divided so irregularly as to render it somewhat difficult 

 to recognize the true division of the scutella. 



" These animals when handled wUl generally, either from fear or as a means of defence, squirt out a 

 quantity of water, in a pretty strong stream, from the anus. 



" I have read that the combat of the males may be heard at some distance, from the noise they produce 

 in butting against each other. This was never the case with this tortoise, though mine had frequent 

 fights; but these, instead of butting, consisted merely in trials of strength, one male confronting the 

 other, with the head and fore legs drawn into the shell and the hind feet planted firmly on the ground, 

 and in this manner shoving against each other until one or both became fatigued. This was done chiefly 

 when they wanted to pass each other in any narrow space, and sometimes if the one could succeed in 

 placing his shell a little beneath the other he tilted him over on his back, from whence he had great 

 difficulty in recovering himself; and I have frequently found them sprawling thus, making desperate 

 efforts with head and feet to throw themselves back to their natural position, which they were unable to 

 effect unless the ground chanced to be very uneven so as to assist them. 



" In this kind of warfare the females also frequently indulged, and from their superior size and strength 

 generally accompHshed their wishes. 



" Soon after my arrival at Simla, in March, the old male died from cold ; the others lived through 

 the rain well enough, but were not so lively as in the plains, moving about less frequently. One of the 

 females even produced four eggs, but made no hole to receive them as in the former case, showing 

 plainly that the change of climate was at work upon them. She died in the course of the winter." 



Testudo HORSFIELDII. Afghan Tortoise. 



Testudo horsfieldii. Gray, Catal. Tort., Crocod., i^c, 1844, p. 7, and Catal. Shield Rept. p. 7. tab. 1. 



Giinth. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 214. 

 Homopus burnesii, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xxii. 1854, p. 642. 



Form. — The greatest depth of the shell is one-half of its length, and equal to the width of 

 the sternum between the front incisions. The sternum is one-eighth broader posteriorly 

 (between the hind incisions) than anteriorly. Anterior and posterior profiles rather truncated, 

 the two lateral ones straight, slightly convergent towards the front. 



Plates. — Areoli3e of the vertebral plates behind the centre, of the costal plates in the upper 

 posterior corner, of the lateral marginal plates in the lower posterior corner, whilst those of 

 the hinder marginal plates occupy the centre. The nuchal plate is narrow and elongate. 

 Gular plates elongate, triangular, much longer than broad, the sum of their posterior angles 

 being less than a right angle. Abdominal plate rather broader than long. Anal plates 



