1870.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON NEW TORTOISES. 655 
unite them. I was at one time inclined to regard them as species ; 
but in the British-Museum series of the species are specimens of 
both varieties sent by the same persons from Ceylon, Himalaya, 
and Scinde, which makes it appear as if they were found intermixed 
together. 
Schweigger did not consider Schcepf’s specimen of the young 
animal (which is very characteristic of the fewer-rayed variety) the 
same as the specimen which he described ; and therefore he changed 
the name to stellatus. Dr. Giinther refers to Schcepf’s figure with- 
out doubt, and to Schweigger’s Testudo stellata with doubt (R. B. 
I. p. 4). 
** Dorsal shields with pale and dark rays; ventral shields not 
rayed ; nuchal shield none. India, 
2. PELTAsTES PLATYNOTUS. (Plate XXXIII.) 
Thorax oblong, flat, with six broad uniform pale rays; areolz 
uniform pale brown ; marginal shields with a brown marginal areola, 
and two pale rays; sternum yellow, varied with black near the front 
or hinder margin of the shields, not rayed; underside of marginal 
shields with a very small marginal spot on the front edge. 
Testudo platynotus, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. xl. pp. 70-79; 
Theobald, Proc. Linn. Soc. 
T. elegans, var., Giinther, Rept. Brit. Ind. p. 5. 
Hab. Burmah. 
Blyth describes the flatness of the back as a peculiar character of 
the species ; but it is only to be observed in one out of the three 
specimens in the British Museum ; and he does not mention the plain 
underside, which is found in them all. 
*** Dorsal shields pale- and dark-rayed ; nuchal shield distinct. 
Africa. 
3. PELTASTES GEOMETRICUS. 
Thorax oblong, dorsal and upper edge of marginal plates black ; 
areolee small, of costal plates submarginal ; costal plates with ten or 
more white rays; upperside of marginal plates with three or more 
white rays; sternum brown-varied, of the older specimens more or 
less pale-rayed on the lateral margins; underside of marginal plates 
pale, with a black streak on the front edge; nuchal shield elongate, 
slender ; the vertebral plates more or less convex, sometimes ele- 
vated, tent-shaped. 
Testudo geometrica, Gray, Cat. Sh. Rep. p. 8. 
Peltastes geographicus, Gray, P. Z. S. 1869. 
Var. 1. Shields conical, prominent. 
Testudo geometrica, var. tentoria, Gray, Cat, Sh. Rep. p. 8 (not 
Bell). B.M. 
Var. 2. The margin of the sternal shields black, yellow-radiated. 
Hab. South Africa, Cape of Good Hope. 
