IS6 FAUNA AND FLORA OF PALESTINE. 



ORDER, CHELONIA. 



FAMILY, TESTUDINID.E. 



1. Testudo ibera. Pall. Zoog. Ross.-As. iii., p. i8. Mauritanian 

 Tortoise. 



This is the common Tortoise of the Holy Land, and is found in every 

 part of the country, quite irrespective of the nature of the soil, till we 

 reach Hebron. The hill country of Judsea appears to be its southern 

 limit, south of which and of the Dead Sea it does not occur. 



It is the common Tortoise of Barbary, of the Caucasus, Asia Minor, 

 Mesopotamia, Persia, and Syria. To the south of Palestine it is replaced 

 by the following species. 



2, Testudo kleiiwtanni. Lortet. Poissons de Syrie, p. 90. Klein- 

 mann's Tortoise. 



This species, which has generally been confounded with T. marginata, 

 is the Tortoise of the region between Hebron and Beersheba, and of the 

 Arabah, south of the Dead Sea. It inhabits the whole of the Sinaitic 

 Peninsula, as far as Egypt, where also in sandy districts it is very 

 common. 



Kleinmann's Tortoise has no posterior tubercles on the thigh. The 

 carapace is extremely convex, especially at the juncture of the posterior 

 third with the two anterior thirds. The marginal plates are expanded, 

 almost horizontal in the adults, nearly vertical in young specimens. The 

 nuchal plate is small and pointed. The sub-caudal plate is rhomboidal, 

 forming behind a strongly marked angle, extending distinctly beyond the 

 marginal plates. This plate is generally single, but sometimes there are 

 traces of a suture, as in T. grcsca. Marginal plates, eleven ; median 

 plates, including the nuchal and the caudal, seven ; lateral plates, four on 

 each side. 



Testudo marginata has been stated to be a native of Palestine ; but 

 probably Kleinmann's Tortoise has been mistaken for it. I formerly 

 erroneously stated that T. grcsca was found, mistaking for it T. ibera. 



