33G BCIIMA. ITS PEOPLE ASP PnODUCTIOXS. 



(Jl' the three onlers of Eei)tiles, tlic Clicloniu arc hy far the most important and 

 beneficial to man. Tlie tlesh of some marine species enjoys a world-wiclo celebrity 

 for its nntritious properties and fine flavour, and in America the ' Terrapins ' are an 

 acknowledged delicacy. In Burma all species save the coarser and rank marine turtles 

 {Column, Caretta, and Dtrmafocheli/s) are highly esteemed by the natives, and 

 undoubtedly yield a pleasant and wholesome food. Some prejudice may perhaps lie 

 allowed in the case of carrion-eating species (though few turtles feed more foidly 

 than ducks and fowls); but the hanl-shellod herbivorous river turtle (Bafai/in-) and 

 the majority of land and marsh tortoises, are excellent food, and both wliolesome and 

 palatable. The eggs of all species of turtle are so highly ]irized in Burma that it is 

 much to be feared that the numbers of these useful creatures will be greatly reduced 

 by the eager search for eggs, which, so far from being checked as it should 

 be by Government, is rather encouraged, by the right to collect them being farmed 

 out. If this practice may perhaps not be so injurious to the sea turtles, who possess 

 numerous island resorts not very accessible to their enemies, it is alarmingly destructive 

 to river turtles, as the Batagiir.i, who not only lay but few eggs, 25 or thereabouts, 

 but are compelled to resort to banks of rivers, as near Zalon for example, where 

 every egg laid is appropriated, and the race is recruited only, as it seems to me, from 

 hatchings in stray spots away from the main resort of the species. As, however, 

 the country becomes cleared and settled, the fate of these creatures will become 

 yearly more precarious, until the species is threatened with extinction. In India, 

 where no one scarcely cats either the turtles or their eggs, this danger does not exist ; 

 but in Burma it is a real danger to an important food supply of the people. 



Faintly Testudinidse. 



Terrestrial Chelonians, with feet adapted for walking on land, in a few species 

 only, partly webbed. Sternum concave in males, convex in females. Herbivorous. 



Testudo, Oppel. 



Caudal plate single. Toes five before, four behind. 



T. ELONGATA, Blytll. 



Colour of adults pale yellow, black-mottled, with no trace of rays, and in aged 

 individuals but little black. Head yellow, with the soft skin of the eyes and nostrils 

 pink. Grows to about 12 inches, and inhabits Pegu and Tenasserim. Anderson also 

 records it as occurring in Chaibassa, in Singhbhum. 



T. PLATTNOTUS, Blylh. 



Lek-goung-ni. 



Colour black, with yellow rays. Aged individuals have the back flat ; half-grown 

 specimens are more globose. Grows to about 12 inches. 

 Inhabits Northern Pegu and Upper Burma. 

 The caudal plate in those two species is single. 



Manoueia, Gray. 



Characters much as in Tc4mlo, but hinder toes webbed. Pectoral jjlates separatecl 

 in males. Tangential in females. 



M. EMYS, Miill. and Sclil. 



Tor-lek. 



Colour of adults wholly black. Caudal jilatcs twn, therein dilferiug from 

 Tedudo. Grows to 20 inches, and ranges from Assam througli Arakan, Pegu, and 

 the Tenasserim. Provinces. 



Geomyda, Gray. 



Differs from Testutlo in possessing divided eaudals, and hind toes webbed. 

 Zygomatic arch none. 



