iiHiiri:T(i[.()i;y. 339 



B. TRIVITTATA, Diim. ct Bib. 



LC'k-pok. 



A nuchal plate always ])ivsL'nt. roluur in maU^s paid olivc-gri'on, witli three 

 conspicuous pitcliy black Ininils down the back. Jfcncath pale orange yi'llow. Females 

 uniform umber brown, treasonably the males are very lirightly coloured, tlie head 

 and neck being a pale crimson, lading on death to waxy white. Grows to over 

 twenty indies. 



Inhabits Pegu and Tenass(>rim. 



An allied sj)ecies, B. affinis, Giintlier, inhabits the ^[alayan Peninsula, and may 

 range into Tenasserira ; it is distinguished by liaving no nuchal plate. 



B. TKiviTTATA, Dum. et Bib. (?). 



B. Jravadica, Anderson. 



This species appears to have originated in the fact that Dr. Anderson obtained 

 a male specimen, of sci'cn inches in length, which was uniform brown, and without 

 the black streaks which characterize the males of B. triinttata, whose adults attain 

 to eighfecn inches. Jfo adult brown male of Iravadica is known, and if, as Anderson 

 maintains, the brown females of B. trivittata, as de.scrilicd by me, pertain to B. Iraiadica, 

 rather than to it, then the females of B. trivitlafa are unknown. The adult mahj 

 of B. Imradica is unknown, and Dr. Anderson liimself states that the " skulls of the 

 adult males and females referred by Theobald to B. trivittata are so alike to one 

 another, and so resembled by the skull even of the uniformly coloured male, that 

 I cannot seize on any animal character which would separate them specifically, unless 

 it be the greater upturning of the nasals in tlie latter" (!). Dr. Anderson then adduces 

 certain dill'ercnces in the shields, but in recollection of how the scutation of some 

 species varies with age' (e.g. Bellia crasnicolliii), and the great ]>robability that the 

 pitchy bands of B. triviltula are a sexual adornment of the adult male, it seems 

 more than probable tluit the young male whereon B. Iraradica is founded is merely 

 tlu; immature male of B. trivittata, no black-streaked male of that species being, 

 it would seem, known of the size of Dr. Anderson's typical male, viz. 7 inches. 



Tktiuo.nyx, Lesnon. 

 T. iiASKA, Ham. Buch. 



A nuchal plate always present. Four toes on all feet. Colour uniform brown. 

 Grows to twenty-four inches. 



Inhabits Pegu, Tcnasserim, the Malayan Peninsula, and also Bengal. 

 An allied species in Borneo has no nuchal plate {B. pictus, Gray). 



Family Platysternidae (Parrot Tortoises). 



Platysteenon, Gray. 

 P. Pegitense, Gray. 



Head large. Tail long. Shell small. Colour above grey, below orange. A black- 

 edged yellow stripe behind the eye. Grows to fourteen inches, of which the shell 

 is five only. 



Inhabits the streams falling into the Sittoung and Salween llivcrs. 



Nearly all the above-mentioned species of tortoises are excellent eating, especially 

 the large hard-shelled herbivorous species. Some small species, as Bellia, are of 

 scavenger habits, and the flesh of these animals, when captured near towns, is to bo 

 avoided; but the objection is not so strong to animals taken in tlie jungles. I doubt 

 not that all species would make good soup ; but the way I myself was in the habit of 

 having the flesh dressed was in the shape of broiled cutlets, which I found very 

 palatable and wholesome. 



The next division embraces the soft or ' snapping ' turtles as they are sometimes 

 called. 



