6o 



TORTOISES AND TURTLES. 



caudal shield being usually double, and there being no large tubercle on the inner 

 side of the thigh. The shell of this species is moderately vaulted, and not much 

 expanded behind, while its margins are not serrated. The nuchal shield is very 

 long and narrow ; in the male the divided caudals are much incurved ; and the 

 shields of the back show a strongly-marked concentric striation. In colour, the 

 shell is bright yellow, with the shields of the carapace spotted and bordered with 

 black, and a broad band of black running along each side of the plastron. The 

 length of the shell is about 5| inches. Mainly a South European species, the 

 Grecian tortoise inhabits the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Italy, 

 Dalmatia, the Balkan Peninsula, and the Greek Archipelago, while it also occurs in 

 Syria. The allied but larger Algerian tortoise (T. ibera), in which the shell attains 

 a length of about 9 inches, may be distinguished by the fifth vertebral shield being 

 not broader than the third, by the single caudal shield, and the presence of a large 



subcorneal tubercle on the inner 

 surface of the thigh. In colour, 

 this species differs from the last 

 in having the plastron more or 

 less spotted with black, while 

 in some examples the carapace 

 is uniformly brown. Its range 

 includes North-Western Africa, 

 Syria, Asia Minor, Trans- 

 caucasia, and Persia. A third 

 species often represented among 

 the shiploads of these reptiles 

 imported into England, is the 

 margined tortoise (T. nraar- 

 ginata), which attains a length 

 of 11 inches, and appears to 

 be confined to Greece. The 

 absence of an enlarged tubercle on the thigh serves to distinguish it from the 

 preceding species ; from which it also differs by the longer and more depressed shell, 

 in which the hinder margin is much expanded, and more or less serrated. Usually 

 the carapace of the adult is black with a small yellow or greenish spot on each 

 shield; while the ground-colour of the plastron is yellowish, each of its shields 

 being marked by a black patch, which generally takes a triangular form. This 

 species appears to be confined to Greece ; but in Lower Egypt and Syria is replaced 

 by the smaller Leith's tortoise (T. leithi), in which the carapace is relatively shorter 

 and more deeply notched in front, while the form and arrangement of the tubercles 

 on the fore-limb is different. 



All these tortoises appear identical in their habits, frequenting dry and sandy 

 places, and being extremely fond of sunshine, in which they will bask by the horn- 

 together. In certain parts of Greece and the south of Italy, the Grecian tortoise is 

 found in great numbers ; and in the markets of Sicily and Italy it is regularly 

 exposed for sale as an article of food. At the approach of winter it buries itself 

 deep in the earth, where it remains during the cold months, usually reappearing in 



GRECIAN TORTOISE. 



