338 



ORDER— CHELONIA. 



TORTOISES. 



Reptiles with the bones of the thorax united into a solid shield or 

 carapace^ which is an osseous structure covered with an epidermoid 

 coat and formed by the more or less complete anchylosis of the 

 vertebrae, ribs^ and sternum. Cervical and caudal vertebrae free and 

 moveable. Skull articulated to the atlas by a single condyle. 

 Epidermoid coat soft or horny, divided into horny shields or plates. 

 Head, neck, limbs and tail covered with smooth or tubercular skin. 

 Reproductive organ of male single, lodged within the vesico-genital 

 cloaca, and with a seminal groove only. Oviparous. Eggs coated with 

 a flexible or calcareous shell hatched in the sun under mould or a 

 layer of sand. The order is divided into four families : — Testudinidee 

 or Land Tortoises, Emydidse or Freshwater Tortoises, Trionycida3 or 

 Freshwater Turtles, Chelonidas or Marine Turtles. 



Family, TESTUDINID^. 



Land Tortoises ; Terrestrial Chelonians. 



Herbivorous. Shell or carapace very convex, with horny shields. 

 Thorax and sternum united into an immovable case. Oviparous. 

 Eggs sub-cylindrical, hard-shelled. 



Testudo, Oiopel. 



Thorax and sternum solid, bony ; sternum concave in males, fiat in 

 females; caudal plate single ; gular plates not united. Toes short, not 

 webbed; 5 before, 4 behind. Feet club-shaped. 



Testudo elegans, Schcepf. Testudo. t. xxv. p. Ill ; Murray, HdhJi., 

 ZooL, ^'c, Sind, p. 256. Testudo actinodes, Bell, Zool. Jour. 111-419; 

 Gimtli. Rep. Br. Ind., iii., p. 419, p. 4; Theoh. Rep. Br.Ind., p. 2. — 



The Starred Tortoise. 



Shell oblong-ovate, conti'acted towards both ends and elevated in the 

 middle, with the lateral margins straight and slightly curved; it is higher 

 than broad, and has a deep broad obtusangular notch anteriorly, and the 

 sternum a similar one, but of less depth, posteriorly. Plates elevated 

 into prominent humps from -^ to 1 inch high. Areolse of vertebral 

 plates central, of the costals towards the upper margin, and of the 

 marginal plates in the lower posterior corner. No nuchal plate. 

 Areolar portion of the three hinder marginals projecting. Gular plates 

 elongate, triangular, longer than broad. Post-gulars longer than broad. 

 Abdominal as broad as long. Anal plates nearly regularly rhomboidal. 



Head covered with small polygonal horny shields, those on the upper 

 portion of the snout and on the crown being symmetrically arranged. An 

 oblong shield above the tympanum. Jaws indistinctly denticulated. 



