LPPENDLX TO T1IK CATAUKiUK OV SHIELD ItEPTILES. 



scutes that is, having eleven on each half of the shell 

 anil a single one posteriorly." 1 also think, from the tlat- 

 - of the head in the living animal, that the skull I 

 figured under the name of T. planictps is of this speoies. 

 This 1 formerly doubted, because there was a Bpeoimen in 

 the Zoological Society 's Gardens, said to have come from the 

 Galapagos Islands, which had a very convex forehead, like 

 the Indian specimens; hut perhaps the hahitat in this case 



h - a mistake, or mighl not have belonged to the example 



which 1 examined, but to another in the same pen which 

 I did not sec. 



Skull: basisphenoid triangular, small; basioocipital 

 much broader. See ( -<■ ,'..-, "ss. Foss. v. tab. 2. fig. 19. 



This Tortoise breeds and multiplies in Jamaica and other 

 West-India islands. 



Mr. Cope says this species is found in Ecuador (Proc. 

 \ 1. Philadelphia, 1868, p. 90). 



A specimen of a large black Tortoise without any nuchal 

 plate, in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantcs, which 

 received it from the Academy of Sciences, has been de- 

 scribed under the following names : — 



Tortues des Indes, Perrault, Man. Acad. Sci. 1866, v. p. 1 72, 



tab. 58. 

 Testudo indica. S hm idt r, SckildJc. p. 355. 



Gmeh. Lair., Daudin, Guv., Gray. 

 Testudo indica Perraultii, Scliapf. Hist. Test. p. 101. 22. 



Shaw, Schvii igg. 

 Chersine retusa, Merr. Amph. p. 29. 



Fits. Ver:, ich . 

 Testudo Perraultii, Dumeril et Bibron, Erpet. Gen. ii. p. 126. 



I do not see any thing in the description or figure that 

 separates this species from the usual Galapagos Tortoise, 

 T. dephantopixs, except that, it is said, the last vertebral 

 shield is more prominent than usual. 



7'.s'»i/n Duuiliiiii, Dumeril et Bibron, Erpet. Generale, 

 ii. p. 125, described from a skeleton in the Gallery of 

 Comparative Anatomy, Paris, as having a very small 

 nuchal plate and double subcaudal plate, is probably an 

 abnormal Testudo indica, or it may be a specimen of T. 

 Phayrei, to which Prof. Strauch unites it ; and he also 

 refers with doubt Testudo australis, Girard, TJ. S. Expl. 

 Exped. Herpetology, p. 470; but it is doubtful if the latter 

 is not rather Manouria emys ; the description, however, is 

 not enough to settle the question. He observes, " One must 

 decide from the description that T. Phayrei, Blyth, belongs 

 as a synonym to this species ; for both the form and colour 

 of the carapace, as well as the number of the marginal 

 shields, among which there is a nuchal and a caudal plate 

 divided on its upper surface, and likewise the habitat, point 

 to this conclusion " (p. 32). 



Itiimcril and Bibron describe two specimens of Tortoises, 

 T. Vbsmatri and '/'. peltastes, which have no nuchal plate; 

 and the pair of gular plates united into one, but are 

 otherwise very like T. elephantopus, and are probably only 

 abnormal varieties of that speoies, hut may prove to be ver\ 

 distinct species when we are enabled to examine them in 

 a perfect state. 



Dumeril and Bibron arrange them in a separate section 

 of the genus, along with T. angulata and T. Grayii ; and Dr. 

 Strauch refers them to my genus Chersina, with which they 

 have very little alliance. Fitzinger formed for one of them 

 his genus Oylindraspis. 



Testudo radiata (p. 5), add : — 

 Gray, Tortoises fyc. tab. 7 & 8 (from life). 



Face short ; upper beak high, with three blunt keels in 

 front, the two outer keels ending in obscure lobes, the edge 

 divided into acute teeth. 



The lower jaw acutely toothed on the edge and on the 

 upper part of the outer side. 



Fore legs covered with unequal flat scales, with a few 

 large ones on the outer edge, and four or five larger thick 

 scales near the inner side. 



Gular shields small, produced, united together the whole 

 of the length, and forming a projection which is rounded 

 on front and outer edge ; anal shield oblong, transverse, very 

 much broader than long. The adult male in the British 

 Museum has the sternum and abdominal and femoral 

 plate sdeeply concave, and the anal plates very convex and 

 prominent. 



Testudo pardalis (p. 6), add ; — 

 Gray, Tortoises Sfc. tab. 9 & 10 (from life). 



Face short ; upper beak high, rounded in front, with a 

 very obscure indication of a slight, short, central ridge on 

 the lower margin ; edge of the jaws obscurely denticulated 

 with a nearly entire edge. 



Fore legs with small scales, and scattered large triangular 

 ones on the upper and outer sides. 



Hind feet with unequal-sized scales on the upper part of 

 the hinder and on the lower side, with a few thick, tri- 

 angular, elongated, recurved scales on the hinder edge. 



PELTASTES (p. S). 



This name has been objected to as having been already 

 used. I do not consider this a valid objection ; but those 

 who do may use Peltonia. 



