162 Records of the Indian Museum. [VoL. VII, 
disk. The second (No. 54), which is labelled Testudo hurum, 
represents an older individual in which the ocelli have become 
obsolescent, the ring of bright reddish yellow which surrounds the 
central dark spot having faded and the spot itself having increased 
greatly in size, while the reticulate lines have multiplied and 
become more vermicular in character. The third drawing (No 53) 
evidently represents a much larger specimen; it is labelled Testudo 
chhim. ‘The whole of the dorsal surface of the disk has darkened 
and only small and somewhat obscure yellowish spots represent 
the pale ground-colour of the juvenile disk. The ventral surface 
is represented as dark olive faintly speckled with a pale shade in 
the first figure and uniformly pale in the others. The coloration 
of the head varies somewhat in the adult as regards the relative 
proportions of the yellow and the dark green areas. The former 
colour usually predominates on the snout and on the sides of the 
head behind the mouth and the latter on the post- and inter-orbital 
regions, forming a more or less close and dense reticulation. In 
the young the two colours are more definitely separated. In old 
individuals traces of dark radiating lines can sometimes be detec- 
ted on the edge of the disk, while that of the young is usually 
spotted minutely with yellow. The iris is greyish. 
The specimen from near Rajmahal to which allusion has 
already been made was altogether abnormal in coloration. It was 
a half-grown individual with a disk measuring 27°6 cm. in length. 
The whole of the dorsal surface was of an almost uniform pale olive, 
green on the head and neck and greyer on the limbs than on the 
disk, which showed no trace of ocelli—markings of which traces 
can usually be detected in even larger individuals. The disk, 
however, had an obscure mid-dorsal stripe crossed by five cross- 
bars, all of a slightly darker shade than the ground-colour. The 
posterior part of the upper surface and sides of the head was 
obscurely clouded with dark olive. The whole of the ventral 
surface was pale and the iris was pinkish white. Fortunately a 
record of the colours of this specimen, which is preserved as a 
skeleton, was kept in the form of rough water-colour sketches and 
a cast of the fresh specimen was made and painted accordingly. 
The snout does not become much blunter or the head broader 
with age in this species. In some very old individuals, however, 
the nasal aperture is, on the skull, considerably broader than the 
inter-orbital space, but this appears to be due, judging from the 
rugosity of the bones, either to senility or to disease. The 
hypobranchials (fig. 3) are comparatively short and broad; even in 
aged individuals they bear at the distal end only a cartilaginous 
plate containing a small ossicle. 
The size reached by this species is not so great as that 
commonly attained by T. gangeticus. The largest individual I have 
seen was a male recently purchased in Calcutta and said to have 
come from Khulna. Its dorsal disk measured 60 X 40°9 cm. and 
its bony carapace 41°6 X 40°9 cm., the disk being rather narrower 
than usual. 
