TESTUDO. 



21 



femorals ; axillary and int!;ninal moderate. Head moderate ; a 

 pair of large praet'rontal shields, follo\Aed by a very large frontal ; 

 beak scarcely hooked ; alveolar ridge of upper ja\\' short and feeble. 

 Anterior face of fore limb covered with a few extremely large im- 

 bricate bony scutes disposed in three longitudinal and five trans- 

 verse series. Carapace yello\\-, each shield bordered anteriorly and 

 laterally with blackish brown ; plastron yellow, each abdominal 

 shield with a dark brown triangular or cuneiform marking. 



Length of shell 5 inches. 



Hah. Lower Egypt and the neighbouring part of Syria. The 

 single specimen upon which the species was founded was said to 

 be from Sind, where, however, this tortoise does not appear to have 

 been rediscovered during the last twenty years. 



18. Testudo elegans. 



Testudo elegans, Schoepf, Test. p. Ill, pi. xxv ; Gi'mth. Kept. B. I. 



p. 4 ; Theoh. Cat. p. 2 ; Bouknq. Cat. Chel. ^r. p. 1(31. 

 Testudo meo-alnpns, Bliith, J. A. 'S. B. xxii, 1853, p. G40. 



Fig. G. — Testudo elegans. 



Carapace very convex, dorsal shields often forming humps; lateral 

 margins nearly vertical ; posterior margin somewhat expanded and 

 strongly serrated; no nuchal ; supracaudal undivided, incurved in the 

 male ; shields strongly striated concentrically ; first vertebral longer 

 than broad, the others broader than long, third at least as broad 

 as the corresponding costal. Plastron large, truncated or openly 

 notched in front, deeply notched, bifid behind ; suture between the 

 humerals much longer than that between the femorals ; suture be- 

 tween the pectorals very short : axillary and inguinal rather small. 

 Head moderate ; forehead swollen, convex, and covered with 

 rather small and irregular shields ; beak feebly hooked, bi- or 



