56) 



A NEW TORTOISE FROM TRAVANCORE. 

 By 



G. A. BoULENGER, F.R.S. 



(With 2 Plates.) 



(Read be/are the Bombay Natural History Society on 



28th June 1906.) 



Shortly after leaving India, Mr. H. S. Ferguson drew my attention 

 to a Tortoise which occurs near Trivandrum, along with the well- 

 knwwn Testudo elegans , and which agrees with it in the absence of a 

 nuchal shield. A shell which he brought me about a year ago indicated 

 a species more nearly allied to the Burmese-Siamese T. elongata. I 

 requested Major Dawson, Mr. Ferguson's successor at the Trivandrum 

 Museum, to procure complete specimens, and through his kindness I 

 have now received two living adult individuals, from which, together 

 with the shell above mentioned, I have drawn up the following 

 description : — 



Testudo travancorica. 



Shell much depressed once and two-fifths to once and three-fifths as long- 

 as deep, with flattish or feebly convex vertebral region ; anterior and post- 

 erior margins very distinctly reverted, slightly serrated ; shields concen- 

 trically striated ; nuchal absent; supracaudal undivided, incurved or not; 

 first vertebral shield a little broader than long, the others much broader 

 than long and as broad as or broader than the costals. Plastron large 

 truncate anteriorly, deeply notched posteriorly; suture between the pec- 

 toral shields shorter than, but at least three-fourths the length of, that 

 between the humerals ; suture between the gulars as long as or shorter 

 than that between the pectorals ; anals forming a very short suture - 

 axillary and inguinal moderate. Head moderate ; a pair of large prse- 

 frontal shields, followed by a much larger- frontal, which is broader 

 than long ; beak feebly hooked, tricuspid. Anterior face of fore limb 

 with large, unequal-sized imbricate scales ; no enlarged tubercles on 

 the thighs ; tail ending in a claw-like horny tubercle. 



Carapace olive or reddish-brown above, the shields with a yellowish 

 central area surrounded by black blotches, which may extend over the 

 greater part of their surface ; plastron yellowish, with small black 

 blotches. Head yellowish, tinged with orange ; limbs olive, the large 

 scales yellowish ; iris dark-brown. 



