924 . mr. a. loveridge : notes on 



TestudiniBjT;. 



CiNIXYS BELLTANA Grny. 



Blgr. Cat. Ohelonians, 1889, p. 143. 



; More than fifteen specimens from Turiana, Mkata River' 

 Uliya, Myombo, Kilosa, Ikikuyu, Pwaga, Godegode, and Siiiibo. 



Bell's Hinged Tortoise is very common at Kilosa, both on 

 the swampy grasslands of the lower ground and on paths in the 

 maiombo bush on the hillsides. They can live in water for days 

 without drowning, apparently resting on the surface without 

 effort. I was given one b}' an Indian who had dropped it down 

 a weir two days before, where it was when I found it, none the 

 worse for its experience. 



In the Kilosa sub-district, where the country is of the open 

 maiombo-bush type with rank grass growing between the bushes, 

 the shells are much deeper than in the rock-strewn or dense 

 thornbush country such as Pwaga, where the thornbush covers 

 many miles with a thick and impenetrable mat; rocks were 

 found in the valleys and scattered here and there upon the hill- 

 sides, but those 1 came across did not seem to afford much cover 

 for tortoises. The single Bell's Tortoise taken at Pwaga was 

 very worn and depressed, as if it continually pushed its way 

 beneath bouldei's. The Ikikuyu country is of a similar type to 

 that at Pwaga, though there are more open, sandy, thornbush 

 stretches on the low ground ; the single specimen from this place 

 was also depressed but not worn, the markings being distinct. 

 Those from Simbo — similar country to Ikikuyu though a hundred 

 miles or mora west — were also worn and depressed, as has been 

 remarked on elsewhere. 



Locality. Length. Rreadth. Depth. Depth. 



' Kilosa 190 mm. 125 mm. 90 mm. 47*5 per cent. 



' Pwaga 166 „ 107 „ 57 „ 34-5 „ 



Ikikuyu ... 150 „ 95 „ 50 „ 33-4 „ 



' Simbo 148 „ 95 „ 57 „ 33-5 ,. 



„ 145 „ 95 „ 57 „ 39-4 „ 



■ My method of taking the depth was by placing the animal on 

 its side between two blocks. Miss Procter measured with 

 callipers at a given point, and as a depression in the plastron is 

 frequent, our depths, and consequently depth per cent., are dif- 

 ferrent, though both ways serve equally well to emphasise the 

 depressed type of Cinixys inhabiting thornbush country. 



The largest male (?) measured 190x125x90 mm. deep, the 

 largest female 188 X 120 x 80 mm. The smallest example was 

 taken at Uliya on 16.ii. 21, and measured 50x46x25 mm. It 

 is somewhat abnormal in that it has twelve instead of eleven 

 marginals on either side. 



On two occasions I have found several sc.ore of Lesser Stink 

 Ants {^Fallothyreus iarsatics) in the tortoise enclosure woirying 



