35 



CARIXATED TORTOISE. 



Testudo Carinata ? T. pedibus digitatis, testa gibbosa, sculellis 

 dorsalibus quatuor anterioribus caiinatis, sterna integro. Lin. 

 Syst. Nat. p. 353. 



Tortoise with digitated feet, and gibbose shell, with the four 

 first dorsal scutella carinated, and entire sternum. 



THE Testudo carinata of Linnaeus seems a spe- 

 cies very little known. In the Leverian Museum 

 is a shell which answers to the Linnasan descrip- 

 tion, and having a very distinctly marked dorsal 

 carina, may be presumed to be the species intend- 

 ed : I must observe, however, that the epithet 

 carinata is by no means a happy one, since there 

 exist other species in which that part is at least as 

 strongly marked as in the present. These, how- 

 ever, were probably unknown to Linnreus at the 

 time when he described his Testudo carinata. This 

 shell is one of the smaller kinds, measuring only 

 three inches in length. Its form is broad, or 

 inclining somewhat to orbicular; its convexity 

 moderate, and its colour brown, each scutellum 

 being marked by a pale zone of obscurely trian- 

 gular and somewhat confluent spots surrounding 

 the areola or central part, which is rather large 

 than small, and roughened by very minute pro- 

 tuberances or points. The edges of each scutel- 

 lum are surrounded by three or four pretty dis- 

 tinctly marked furrows. The form of the scu- 

 tella is rather broad, and of the usual angular 

 outline. Down the four first dorsal ones runs 



