TOL: | N. ANNANDALE: The Indian Mud-Turtles. Igt 
The peculiar structure of the carapace and plastron of this 
genus, in which the soft parts can be more completely protected 
than in any other Indian genus of the family, may perhaps be 
correlated with a peculiarity in habits. Tyvionyx usually inhabits 
rivers and appears to be active at all times of the year, but Emyda 
lives in ponds and lakes and undergoes, at any rate in northern 
India, a considerable period of hibernation. Specimens were 
brought me in February at Purulia which had been dug from 
the mud in the basin of a dried pond, while the individuals 
which inhabit the Museum tank in Calcutta disappear for the 
whole of the cold weather. Not only can the characteristic carti- 
laginous flaps of the plastron close tightly over the hind limbs, but 
the anterior part of the carapace is flexible, owing partly to the 
fact that the nuchal plate is not as a rule united to the first pair 
of costals ; it can be bent down to meet the anterior margin of the 
plastron in such a way that the retracted head and fore limbs are 
completely concealed, while the posterior part of the disk, includ- 
ing the marginal bones, can be bent down in a similar manner to 
protect the thighs and tail. 
The typical form of E. granosa, although it rarely leaves the 
ponds in which it lives, is fond of sunning itself on logs or stones 
projecting above the surface of the water. It is extremely timid 
and difficult to approach. I have taken a young specimen of the 
South Indian form (v7ttata) at the edge of a pond among weeds. 
11. Emyda granosa (Schoepft). 
The distribution of this species cannot be considered apart 
from the question of the characters whereby its local races are 
separated. So far as it is possible to judge from the collection 
before me, three local races occur in India, one in Burma and one 
in Ceylon. They are:— 
(1) Indian races :-—E. granosa (typical form), subspecies inter- 
media, nov., and subspecies vittata, Peters. 
(2) Burmese race :—Subspecies scutata, Peters. 
(3) Ceylon race :—Subspecies ceylonensis, Gray. 
(1) The forma typica is confined in India proper to the valleys 
of the Indus and Ganges, but it probably occurs in Assam and 
certainly does so on the coast of Arrakan. 
The subspecies intermedia occurs in the valleys of the 
Barakar and Kasai rivers, which reach the sea, just south of the 
Ganges, through the Hughli estuary, and in those of the Mahanaddi 
and the Godavari. Politically its range extends through Chota 
Nagpur, the Central Provinces, Orissa and the north-eastern part 
of the Presidency of Madras. 
The subspecies vittata' is found in the Madras Presidency, 
over the greater part of which it ranges, occurring on the Mysore 
1 Siebenrock (p. 591, footnote) states that the Vienna Museum possesses a 
specimen of this race which appears to have come from Celebes, but the evidence 
as regards its provénance is not satisfactory. 
