22 TESTUDIIflD.i:. 



yellow with large black spots, or dark brown with the sutures 

 between the shields yellow ; in the very young the black spots of 

 the plastron are confluent into a broad median band, the border 

 of the plastron being yellow ; head and neck bro\'i'n above, yellow 

 beneath ; a yellow band borders the bead and neck above, meeting 

 its fellow above the nostrils ; a second yellow baud passes through 

 the eye and is separated from the upper jaw by a dark brown 

 band ; ear yellow. _ 



Length of shell 200 millim. — 



Distributed from Burma and Siam to the Moluccas. 



Known from Penang, Kedali, Jalor, Perak, Malacca, aud 

 Singapore. 



Common in ponds, streams, and paddy-fields, especially in the 

 low country. In captivity it feeds on vegetables, but prefers 

 bananas, and will also eat flesh. Eggs rather large aud oblong. 



This species and C. j^^atljnota are the most commonly seen of 

 the Malayan tortoises. 



Genus BELLIA. 

 Gray, P.Z. S. 1869, p. 197, 



Neural plates hexagonal, anterior lateral margins shortest. 

 Plastron united to the carapace by suture, with long axillary 

 and inguinal buttresses ; humero-pectoral suture crossiug the 

 entoplastron. Skull with a bony temporal arch ; alveolar surfaces 

 without median ridge ; choanfe betx^een the eyes. Skin of hinder 

 part of head only divided into small shields. Digits webbed. 

 Tail short. 



A single species. Aquatic and carnivorous. 



18. Bellia crassicollis. 



Mnt/s crassicollis, Gray, Syn. Eept. p. 21 (1831) ; Cantor, Journ. 



Asiat. Soc. Bengal, xvi,"'p. 609 (1847) ; Giinth. Kept. Brit. Ind. 



p. 28, pi. iv, fig. E( 1864). 

 Bellia crassicollis, Grav, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 197 ; Bouleng. Cat. 



Clielon. p. 98 (1889) ;' id. Faun. l^Jrit. lud., Uept. p. 32 (1890) ; 



S. Flower, P. Z. S. 1899, p. 611. 



Carapace moderately depressed, tricarinate in the young, the 

 keels, especially the laterals, becoming indistinct in old specimens; 

 vertebral region flattened in the adult male ; posterior border 

 serrated ; nuchal small, broader behind ; posterior side of first 

 vertebral not half the length of the shield in the adult ; vertebrals 

 2 to 4 as long as broad or a little broader than long, much 

 narrower than the costals, narro\x ly in contact with each other in 

 old specimens ; in the latter, the antero-lateral sides are convex, 

 the postero-lateral longer and concave. Plastron smaller than 

 tlie opening of the shell, truncate anteriorly, angularly notched 

 posteriorly, feebly concave in the males, strongly aiL^ulate laterally 

 in young specimens, feebly in old ones ; the width of the bridge 

 about equals the length of the hind lobe ; abdominal shields usually 

 forming the longest suture, hiimerals the shortest ; axillary and 



