LIVING IN THE SOCIETY’S MENAGERIE. 217 
tympanic region along the side of the neck, are confluent with the middle ones behind, 
and succeeded by some irregular spots. Every scute at the lower side has a broad 
brown margin with a lateral or subcentral yellow spot. Also the fore legs are orna- 
mented in front with a broad brown longitudinal band. 
The largest specimens which I have seen had a shield about 15 in. long; but from 
the vague descriptions of travellers there is a probability that this Turtle grows to 
about twice that length. 
Of the skeleton, two specimens are in the British Museum, of nearly the same size, 
the carapaces being respectively 13 and 143 in. long. The most prominent peculiarities 
of the osteology have been noticed by Cuvier (Oss. Foss. vol. v. part 2), Owen (Osteol. 
Cat. Coll. Surg. vol. i. p. 186), and Hoffmann (in Bronn’s Thierreich, Reptil. p. 68) ; 
but I have observed some points in the structure of the vertebral column which are not, 
or but slightly, referred to by those authors or by Vaillant, the latest writer on the 
subject (Ann. Sc. Nat. Zool. 1880, p. 80), whose observations otherwise most closely 
agree with mine. 
The cervical vertebre, which, as usual, are eight in number, show the greatest 
resemblance to those of Chelodina from Australia. The elongate compressed shape of 
the centra, the development of broad pleurapophyses, the tendency of the posterior 
zygapophyses to unite into a single process, and, finally, the mode of articulation are 
the same in both genera. Like Vaillant, I find simple condyles in all these vertebre ; 
and not the double convexity and concavity between the sixth and seventh which has 
been described by Owen. ‘The 1st vertebra is biconcave, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th opis- 
thoceelous, the 5th biconvex, the 6th proccelous, the 7th biconcave, and the 8th 
biconvex. In the first, traces of the union between neural arch and odontoid ele- 
ments can scarcely be distinguished, the entire vertebra being similar in form to the 
second, but shorter and with the posterior zygapophyses wider apart. In the fourth, 
Fig. 1. 
First, second, and third cervical vertebra of Chelys fimbriata (upper and lateral views). 
2L 2 
