SPECKLED TORTOISE. 



Testudo Europsa. T. testa ovali planiuscula subcarinata fusco- 

 utra, pvnctis stnisque albo-jlavescentibus radiatis. Sckneid. 

 Schildkr. p. 323. 



Tortoise with oval, flatfish, smooth, dark-brown shell, marked 

 with very numerous yellowish specks and streaks. 



Testudo ovbicularis. T. testa orbiculari planiuscula Icevi. Lin. 

 Syst. Nat. Gmel. 1039. exdusis synon. Gronoviaim et y. 



Testudo Meleagris. Speckled Tortoise. Naturalist's Miscel- 

 lany, vol. 4. pi. 144. 



T. aquarum dulcium et lutaria. Raj. Quadr. 254. 



La Jatine. Cepcde ovip. I. p. 135. pi. 6. 



THE speckled Tortoise is of rather small size; 

 the shell measuring about four or five inches in 

 length : it is of an olive-brown or blackish colour, 

 smooth, flattish, or but slightly convex, and beau- 

 tifully marked on the upper surface with very nu- 

 merous, small, oblong yellow specks, or very 

 short streaks, which are disposed in a kind of radii 

 on each division of the shell: the skin of the neck 

 and breast of the animal is also spotted nearly in 

 the same manner. The disk of the shell is com- 

 posed of thirteen, and the margin of twenty-five 

 pieces : the under shell is of a whitish yellow, 

 tinged towards the commissures or joints with 

 brown : the head is ovate, somewhat convex 

 above, flattish on each side and beneath ; the skin 

 of the neck lax and wrinkly: the legs short and 

 scaly : all the feet are webbed, and the fore feet 

 have five toes ; the hind only four : the claws 

 on all the feet are sharp-pointed, and somewhat 



