ORDER CHELONIA. IS 



The Box Tortoise.* 



In which the plastron, or breast-plate, is divided into 

 two lids, by a moveable articulation, and which can 

 entirely close their carapace, when the head and 

 limbs are withdrawn into it. 



Some have the anterior lid alone moveable.! 



In others, the two lids move equally.^ 



There are, on the contrary, tortoises of the fresh 

 water, whose long tail and voluminous limbs cannot 

 enter completely within their bucklers. In this 

 respect they approach the subsequent sub-genera, 

 and especially the chelydes, and consequently merit 

 a distinct notice. § 



Such is, 



The Snake Tortoise^ T. Serpentina^ L. Schoepf. 



pi. vi. 



Which may be recognised by its tail, which is almost 

 as long as its carapace, and bristling with sharp and 

 denticulated crests, and by its scales, which are raised 



* It is of this subdivision that Merrem has raade his genus Teurapene; 

 Spix his genus Kinosternon ; and Fleming his genus Cistuda. The 

 European species, and others, have also something of this mobility, which 

 renders it difficult to define the genus. 



t Test, subnigra I. vii. 2; — T. Clausa, Schoepf, vii. 



X The box-tortoise of Amboyna. Dand. II. 509; Test, tricarinata, 

 Schoppf. 11.; Test. PensUvanica. I. d, xxiv. 



§ M. Fitzinger has made of this subdivision his genus Chelydra, and 

 Fleming his genus Chelondua. 



