Dr. J. E. Gray on a new Species of Tortoise. 381 



one very long ; surface punctured, ashy, the sides occupied by a 

 dark-brown streak or elongate patch, of very irregular outline 

 and broken throughout with short spots and lines of the ashy 

 ground-colour of the elytra. Body beneath clothed with ashy 

 pile. Legs reddish j hind tibiae with rather long apical spurs. 

 Ega. 



[To be continued.] 



XXXVIII. — Notice of a new Species of Kinixys and other Tor- 

 toises from Central Africa. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c. 



Among the other very interesting zoological specimens brought 

 from Central Africa by Capt. Speke, and presented to the British 

 Museum, is an imperfect specimen of a Land-Tortoise, which 

 appears to indicate the existence of a species that has not hitherto 

 been recorded in the catalogues. 



I therefore propose to record it provisionally as Kinixys 

 Spekii, hoping that some other traveller will be able to bring 

 more perfect specimens, and thus give us a more complete no- 

 tion of the animal. 



Kinixys Spekii. 



Shell oblong, rather depressed, pale brown ; the dorsal and 

 upper part of the marginal plates yellow, deeply and distinctly 

 concentrically grooved, with a black spot on the areola of each 

 shield. The areola of the dorsal plates subcentral, small, gra- 

 nular, of the marginal plates small, rather behind the middle of 

 the shields. The nuchal plate distinct, oblong-elongate. The 

 sternum flat, convex on the sides, yellow, varied with numerous 

 black-brown rays, which reach nearly to the margin ; the an- 

 terior [part of the sternum rather produced and truncated in 

 front, the gular plates being short and rather small ; the hinder 

 end of the sternum short and rounded, and slightly nicked in 

 the middle. 



It is most like K. Homeana ; but unfortunately it wants the 

 hinder moveable part of the back, and therefore we cannot tell 

 whether it has the prominence of the upper part of the fifth 

 vertebral plate, which is characteristic of that species. 



It differs from the older specimens of that genus (and the 

 young have not occurred to me) in being longer and more ob- 

 long, and it has a very distinctly marked, large square spot 

 occupying the areola of each of the dorsal plates, and a smaller 

 but equally distinct black spot occupies the upper part of the 

 areola of each of the marginal plates. 



It may be only a richly coloured specimen of the young of 

 K. Homeana; but the adult animal shows no indications of 



