TESTUDO LEITHII. 29 
margin of the front border of the pectoral. Head yellowish or dusky, with some 
dark brown on its upper surface. 
The shell of the female attains only to 120 millimetres in length. 
As in T. ibera, Pallas, and T. marginata, Schoepff, the hind lobe of the plastron is 
movable in the adult. 
This species is distinguished from T. marginata, Schoepff, by its much smaller size, 
shorter and deeper carapace, backwardly projecting supracaudal, extremely large 
scales on the fore limb, and by its coloration. In T. marginata the adult is nearly 
black, each shield has generally a small greenish-yellow spot, and there is a large black 
spot on each shield of the plastron. 
An example of this species was obtained by Lefebvre in Egypt and is still preserved 
in the Paris Museum. It was referred by A. Dumeril to T. marginata, Schoepff. 
There is also a specimen in the Berlin Museum from Egypt, identified by Lichtensteiu 
as T. grceca. 
In 1869, the British Museum received a small collection of Eeptiles from Sind, 
presented by Dr. Leith. It contained a new species of land-tortoise to which 
Dr. Gunther gave the name of T. leithii. 
In 1875, Dr. Lortet received a land-tortoise from the neighbourhood of Alexandria. 
He considered it to be distinct from T. marginata, Schoepff, and named it after its 
discoverer M. Kleinmann. Dr. Lortet presented one of M. Kleinmann's specimens 
(a female) to the British Museum, so that when Mr. Boulenger came to prepare his 
' Catalogue of Chelonia ' he had before him the types of T. leithii and T. Icleinmanni. 
The result of his comparison of the two has been to establish the specific identity of 
T. Meinmanni, Lortet, with T. leithii, Gunther. 
No example of T. leithii, Giinther, has been recorded either from Sind or from 
any locality to the east of Southern Syria, since Dr. Gunther first described the species. 
In view, however, of the facts that the land-tortoise of Egypt, which, according to 
Lortet, occurs in great numbers about Alexandria, was overlooked by the naturalists 
of the French Expedition in the end of last century, and that, up to 1875, it had only 
been reported from Egypt on two occasions, it might seem, to some, premature to 
conclude that it does not' exist in Sind. The most likely explanation of its presence 
there, however, may possibly be that Dr. Leith's specimen had been carried thither, 
by some native, either from Egypt, or perhaps from the north-western shore of the 
Persian Gulf, and had been sold to Dr. Leith as a Sind tortoise. 
Dr. Lortet gives the following interesting account of this species : — " Le T. Mein- 
manni n'a ete trouve, jusqu'a aujourd'hui, que dans une region tres limitee de lAfrique. 
Je l'ai recu en 1875, pour la premiere fois, dAlexandrie, ou elle a ete decouverte en 
tres grande quantite par M. Kleinmann. Je l'ai trouvee aussi a Damiette et aux 
environs de Port Said. Malgre mes recherches des plus attentives, je n'ai point vu 
cette charmante petite espece dans les environs du Caire, ce qui me ferait croire qu'elle 
