CASPIAN TORTOISE. 63 



at the junctures with black brown, forming so 

 many crossings of that colour: the head is smooth; 

 the neck extremely long, appearing, so far as 

 could be judged from the specimen described, to 

 be almost ahvays in an exserted state (though 

 this is merely a conjecture) : its upper surface is 

 marked with oval scaly granulations, which give 

 it an extremely serpentine appearance : the fore 

 feet are short and tetradactylous ; softly scaled, 

 and as it were pinnated by a continuation of skin : 

 the hind feet are of similar structure, but some- 

 what longer, and more widely pinnated : the 

 claws on all the feet resemble those of birds, and 

 are four in number : the tail is so extremely short 

 as scarce to deserve the name, being merely a 

 slight prolongation, or rather rising, of the skin. 

 The colour of the whole animal above is deep 

 olive-brown ; beneath paler, or inclining to whit- 

 ish. Nothing particular is known of its manners 

 or history. 



CASPIAN TORTOISE. 



Testudo Caspica. T. testa orbiculari, palmarum vnguilnts quinis, 

 plantarum quuternis, capite squamato, caudu nuda. Lin. Syst. 



Nat. Gmelp. 1041. 

 Tortoise with orbicular shell, scaly head, five claws on the fore 



feet, four on the hind, and naked tail. 



DESCRIBED by Gmelin in his Russian Tra- 

 vels ; who represents it as a native of the region 

 of Hircania, inhabiting fresh waters, and some- 

 times growing to a vast size, so that some men 



