2416 



TORTOISES, TURTLES, AND PLESIOSAURS 



Grecian 



Tortoise 



body could be seen. With the usual hardihood of reptiles, the rejected individuals 

 appear to have recovered completely from this severe operation. From several of 

 the islands the giant tortoises have already disappeared, and it is much to be feared 

 that they will soon cease to exist throughout the Galapagos group. Dr. G. Baur, 

 who visited Albemarle in 1891, reports, however, that he made a large collection of 

 these reptiles, one specimen weighing more than four hundred pounds, and its cara- 

 pace measuring four feet in a straight line. 



The familiar Grecian tortoise ( T.graca) brings us to the sixth main 

 group of the genus, which comprises seven Old- World species of small 

 or medium size, characterized by the carapace being brown or olive, 

 which may be either uniform or spotted with black, or black and yellow; by the 

 gular shields on the plastron being distinct, and by the slight prominence and short- 

 ness of the ridge on the palate. The Grecian tortoise belongs to a section of 

 the group in which the anal or hindermost shields of the plastron meet in the middle 



line by a suture of consider- 

 able length, and it is further 

 characterized by the presence 

 of five claws on the fore-foot. 

 From its nearest allies it may 

 be distinguished by the fifth 

 vertebral shield of the cara- 

 pace being much broader than 

 the third; the caudal shield 

 being usually double, and 

 there being no large tubercle 

 on the inner side of the thigh. 

 The shell of this species is 

 moderately vaulted, and not 

 much expanded behind, while 

 its margins are not serrated. 

 The nuchal shield is very long 

 and narrow; in the male the 



divided caudals are much incurved, and the shields of the back show a strongly- 

 marked concentric striation. In color, the shell is bright yellow, with the shields 

 of the carapace spotted and bordered with black, and a broad band of black run- 

 ning along each side of the plastron. The length of the shell is about five and one- 

 half inches. Mainly a South-European species, the Grecian tortoise inhabits the 

 Belearic islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Italy, Dalmatia, the Balkan Peninsula, 

 and the Greek Archipelago, while it also occurs in Syria. The allied but larger 

 Algerian tortoise (T. ibera], in which the shell attains a length of about nine 

 inches, may be distinguished by the fifth vertebral shield being not broader than 

 the third, by the single caudal shield, and the presence of a large subconical tuber- 

 cle on the inner surface of the thigh. In color, this species differs from the last 

 in having the plastron more or less spotted with black, while in some examples the 

 carapace is uniformly brown. Its range includes Northwestern Africa, Syria, Asia 



GRECIAN TORTOISE. 



