112 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



Tortoise endeavoured to escape from its prison. 

 Standing up on its hind-legs, it could bring the 

 centre of its plastron against the edge of the tub, and 

 by scrabbling violently with its front legs it would 

 manage to hoist itself out of the water on to this edge, 

 where for a few seconds of awful suspense it would 

 balance itself, but invariably its centre of gravity was 

 on the wrong side of the staves, and it would flop back 

 into the water. To my certain knowledge this daily 

 struggle went on for three years, until one day the 

 tortoise managed somehow or other to shift its centre 

 of gravity an inch or so further forwards, and it fell 

 over the tub-side on to the ground. A Dayak attendant 

 discovered the animal crawling away and was about 

 to return it to its tub when I intervened and gave it 

 the liberty it had earned so well. 



Callagtir picta is a large Water Tortoise. Young and 

 half-grown individuals have the shell pale yellow 

 striped with black, and the nose is brilliant scarlet. 

 They are often found in mangrove swamps and are 

 fond of resting on submerged snags with just the head 

 exposed above the water. In this position the nose is 

 a very conspicuous object, but it is difficult to see what 

 purpose its brilliant coloration serves. 1 



Borlitia bonieensis, of G. R. Gray, is another very 

 large Water Tortoise which occurs not uncommonly in 

 the lakes of the Batang Lupar district. For long it 

 was represented in the British Museum by a solitary 

 and very juvenile specimen, obtained by Dr. Bleeker 



1 This is really a River Tortoise which goes to the mouth of the 

 river to lay its eggs, at which time the scarlet marking disappears 

 altogether or is only very faint. It lays 15 to 20 long, oval-shaped 

 eggs in February and again in March. C. H. 



