AITKNIHX To THE CATALOGUE OF SHIELD REPTILES. 



TESTUDO u 1 - *)» add:— 



Pectoral plates triangular, tnmoattd or slightly rounded in 

 ': the anal plates qwtdranaular, with a deep een- 

 tral notch. T. elephantopus, T. indioa. 



Oular plates produced, forming a large rounded lobe; anal 

 plate oblong, transverse, short. T. radiata, 



(hilar plates produced, quadrangular, truncated in front; 

 anal plot igular, produced. T. partialis. 



(jtilar ]>lttt,s produced, quadrangular, inner front edge 

 shelving, forming a deep notch ; anal plate quadran- 

 gular. T. chilensis. 



The marginal plates of Land-Tortoises and most Terres- 

 trial Terrapins haw their edge often much produced; and 

 as the plates oover pari of two bones, these projections arc 

 often doable; these dilatations are usually more or less 

 obliterated as they reach the adult age, so that the young 

 and full-grown differ very considerably. For this reason 

 the young of Kinixys has been called Testudo erosa, and 

 the young ' has been called Emi/s spinosa ; but this 



latter species has a spine-like projection in the middle of 

 the areola or plate which exists when the animal is in its 

 egg, and which is obliterated when the animal becomes 

 older ; a similar projection is to be observed, but in a 

 much more rudimentary state, in one or two other exotic 

 specil - 



Testudo tabulata (p. 4), add : — 



Grai/. Tortoises, Terrapins, and Turtles, tab. 1, 2, 3, 

 4. 5 (different varieties from life). 



Testudo ( Gopher ) chilensis (p. 5), add : — 



Testudo (Gopher) chilensis, Gray, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 706, 



pi. 41. 

 Testudo sulcata, If Or bigny, Voy.dansVAmer. 3fer.Rept.-p. 6. 

 Burnt, isti ,-. Reisi durch die La Plata-Staaten, ii. p. 521. 

 Testudo mauritanica, Demoussy, Descr. de la Confederation 



Argentine, ii. p. 38. 

 Testudo argentina, Sclati r, Ann. Sr Mag. Nat. Hist. 1870, vi. 



p. 470; P.Z.S. 1871, p. 480. 



Hob. Chili (Weisshaupt) ; N. Patagonia (D'Orbigny) ; 

 Mendoza and the Pampas (Burmeister) ; Monte Video and 

 Buenos Ayres (Demoussy). 



Beak keeled in front and strongly bidentate. Shell de- 

 pressed, oblong ; middle of the back rather flattened, dirty 

 yellow ; areola central ; nuchal plate distinct ; marginal 

 plates shelving, with a very short keel ; front and hinder 

 marginal plates reflexed, making a serrated edge ; head 

 with one pair of supranasals ; a hexangular (central) and 



two triangular frontal plates between the eyes, with some 

 small shields between them and the supranasals, and a pair 

 of elongated occipital plates ; fore legs with a large spur at 

 the elbow-joint, and numerous conical spines on tho under- 

 side of the thighs, two of which are larger than the rest. 

 The scales in front of the foro legs very large, unequal, 

 eoinex. 



Faco very short ; upper beak high, strongly three-keeled 

 in front, tho keels ending in an acute tooth, the side ones 

 much the strongest ; the lower beak strongly dentated on 

 the edge ; front legs covered with many very largo convex 

 scales on tho front and outer side. 



Hind feet with very unequal-sized scales above and 

 below, and with three or four large, unequal-sized, recurved 

 scales on the binder edge. 



Sternal shields deeply concentrically grooved ; gular pair 

 very small, triangular, produced. 



This species is very like T. sulcata from Abyssinia in 

 colour and general appearance ; but the shell is much more 

 depressed, and the marginal shields, which in that species 

 are very high, with a sharp, narrow keel beneath, arc in 

 this species only moderately high and very sharply keeled. 

 The pectoral plates are narrow towards the centre, and gra- 

 dually spread out in a triangular shape, commencing at one 

 third from the centre ; while in T. sulcata these plates are 

 narrow and linear for two thirds of their width and then 

 suddenly expand into pentangular disks. In this species 

 the last vertebral shield is the width of the caudal and one 

 half of the last and one half of the last but one of the 

 binder marginal shields, whereas in T. sulcata it is only 

 the width of the caudal and one half of the last hinder 

 marginal shield. 



The reception of specimens of Testvilo elephantopus and 

 T. chilensis direct from South America, and the power of 

 comparing them with specimens of Testudo indica from 

 Seychelles and other localities in the Old World, and with 

 Testudo sulcata from Africa, have been very important, as 

 by the comparison of the actual specimens of these animals 

 it has been distinctly proved that, instead of the same 

 species inhabiting the Old and the New World (which 

 was an anomaly among the Testudinata), these species, 

 which have been regarded as the same, are perfectly 

 distinct ; indeed Testudo sulcata from Africa is not only 

 distinct from T. chilensis, but the two species belong to 

 two different subgenera, the one belonging to the Old and 

 the other to the New World. The only other instance, of 

 which I am aware, of a Land-Tortoise being supposed to be 

 common to the two continents, is a species of Kinixys, 

 which was first received from Demerara and Guadeloupe, 



