V. THE TORTOISES OF CHOTA NAGPUR. 



Bv N. Annandale, D.Sc, F.A.S.B.j Superintendent, Indian 



Museum. 



(Plates v-vi). 



The Chelonia, and more parti cularl}^ the terrestrial tortoises 

 of Chota Nagpur, the territory' that lies between the Ganges and 

 Orissa in the interior of the north-eastern part of the Indian 

 Peninsula, have considerable interest of a geographical kind, for 

 they appear to differ from those of the Ganges v-alley and to re- 

 semble those of northern Assam. In other words, this valley now 

 separates the terrestrial Chelonian fauna of North-Eastern India 

 into two distinct and widelj^ parted sections, one inhabiting the 

 wooded hills of the interior of the northern Peninsular area , the 

 other found in northern Assam, where the jungle is even denser 

 and has more of an "equatorial" character. No terrestrial 

 tortoise of any species has hitherto been found either in the 

 lower part of the Gangetic valley nor, so far as is precisely known, ^ 

 in the country between it and the Himalaj^as. More detailed 

 information, however, is badly needed as to the westward range 

 in Assam and possibly northern Bengal of those tortoises that 

 inhabit the foothills north of the Brahmaputra on the one hand, 

 and the hills of Central India (to use the term in a geographical 

 rather than a political sense) on the other. 



As I believe that the collection of Indian Chelonia now in the 

 Indian ^luseum, brought together largely by the exertions of 

 Blyth, Theobald and John Anderson, is very much more nearly 

 complete than any collection elsewhere, I have based the follow- 

 ing notes upon it. They are confessedly of a tentative nature 

 and are published largely in the hope of attracting attention to our 

 ignorance and thereby appealing to naturalists throughout India 

 to assist, by contributing specimens and information, in the 

 preparation of a full revision of the Indian Chelonia. This work 

 I have had in hand for nearly eight years; not onl}^ have con- 

 stant interruptions occurred, but I have found it extraordinarily 

 diihcult to obtain specimens of many of the species. Large series 

 of all but a few very common forms are still necessary, and the 

 fact that our collection is so large makes it the more imperative 

 to render it still more complete. 



1 Anderson was informed by Major Kinloch that the latter had found a 

 living tortoise in the Jalpaiguri district that agreed with a figure of Tesiudo elongata 

 (Anat. Zool. Res. Yunnan.'p. 712, ib/p). (See also foot-note on p. 74.) 



