STRATA OF TILGATE FOREST. 47 



REMAINS OF OVIPAROUS QUADRUPEDS, 



These consist of the bones, and plates, of several species of tortoise ; 

 and the scales, teeth, vertebrae, and other bones, of one or more species of 

 crocodile. 



FOSSIL TORTOISES. 



The remains of these animals in my possession, clearly point out the 

 existence of three species in the Tilgate beds. The first, in the form of 

 its plates, resembles the Testudo mydas (esculent green turtle) of Linne, 

 {testudo vh'idis of Schneider), and must either have belonged to the same 

 species, or to one very analogous to it. Of this kind I have the following 

 specimens. 



17. Three detached plates on a block of car-stone, resembling the 

 plates on the left side of the tortoise of St. Peter's mountain. {Faujas, 

 PI. XIV.) Two of these are mutilated, but the other is nearly perfect ; 

 it is of a quadrangular form, measuring 2-4 by 27 inch, and its edges are 

 slightly dentated. 



18. A specimen six inches long, and two wide, composed of three 

 united dorsal plates. 



1 9. Dorsal plates with rudiments of the ribs. 



These fossils are evidently of the same species as the turtles found at 

 Melsbroeck. It may be proper to remark, that the recent species above- 

 mentioned, is an inhabitant of the coasts of the islands, and continents of 

 the torrid zone. 



20. Of the second" species of testudo, I have but a few imperfect 

 plates, yet their structure is so weU displayed, as to leave no doubt of 

 their being distinct from those previously described. Their surface is 

 covered with numerous little pits or hollows, irregularly disposed, and 

 which served in the recent state, to render the soft integument of the 

 animal more adherent. The specimens in my possession resemble the 

 plate from the Paris basin (fig. 1. Fossiles de Paris, reptiles et poissons) 

 described by Cuvier, and referred by that illustrious naturalist to the sub- 

 genus Trionyx of M. GeofFroy; a division that contains freshwater species 

 only. 



