CHELONIA MYDAS. 27 



abdominal are nearly of the same form, but larger; the femoral are heptagonal, 

 while the sub-caudal are regularly triangular, with their bases outwards and back- 

 wards, with an exceedingly minute, triangular, inter-subcaudal plate, from which 

 reaches a roAv of larger scales or plates towai-ds the vent. There are four large 

 supplemental plates, with several smaller ones; of the larger plates the anterior 

 is quadrilateral, and joined to the thoracic; the second is pentagonal, and joins 

 within to the thoracic and abdominal; the third is regularly quadrilateral, and 

 connected also internally with the abdominal; the fourth is rounded, hexagonal, 

 with its internal margin united to the abdominal and femoral; besides this, it has 

 a smaller triangular plate joined to its outer and posterior border; there are still 

 some supernumerary plates, variable in number, extending between the sternum 

 and carapace, placed in a row along the outer margin of the gular, brachial, and 

 thoracic plates; one of these is largest of all, and is extended between the brachial 

 and thoracic. 



The head is moderately large, oval, slightly compressed at the sides; the snout 

 rounded, with the nostrils anterior but directed a little upwards. Above and at 

 the sides the head is covered with numerous plates of various sizes; of these the 

 vertical is rounded, pentagonal; the superior orbital are oblong; the frontal are 

 hexagonal, broad and rounded; the anterior frontal are also hexagonal, but are 

 narrower and elongated, broader behind, with their longest margin within. The 

 occipital plates are three in number; the anterior broad and heptagonal, the two 

 posterior are equally broad but trapezoid. The walls of the orbit of the eye are 

 completed in front and below by the corneous part of the upper jaw, and behind, 

 by three or four small polygonal posterior o{bital plates, back of which are seen 

 ten or twelve small polygonal temporal plates, arranged in three perpendicular 

 rows. The eyes are prominent; the eye-lids are well developed, and open 

 obliquely from above downwards and forwards; the upper lid is large, heavy, and 

 covered with eight or ten small plates, disposed in rows; the pupil is dark sea-blue; 

 the iris golden, and in general reticulated and spotted with dusky, but it varies a 

 good deal in different individuals. The upper jaw is slightly emarginate in front 



