1899.] BBPTILES OE THE MALAY PENINSULA AND SIAM. 621 



happen to take a piece riglit out. The suddeu way in which they 

 shoot out and theu retract their long necks, and their great 

 strength, make them formidable animals. I have seen one of 

 mine seize a stick pointed at it by a visitor and instantly break it 

 in two, and one that I once had occasion to take for a drive in a 

 carriage occupied itself in worrying a cushion and did not a little 

 damage. Like Damonia siibtrijutja, they are fond of eating blue 

 mussels ; this was the only food I ever saw mine eating, though 

 they were supplied with fish, frogs, and crustaceans (dead and 

 alive), as well as with vegetables, though the Trionifx which 

 Mr. liidley keeps in Singapore eat rice. These turtles are eaten 

 by the Chinese and by some classes of Siamese. The eggs are 

 hard-shelled, white, and spherical. The young turtles are to be 

 found during the latter half of July and in August ; they try to 

 bite lustily. 



Colour (in life). Above olive-brown, beneath white, head and 

 neck with numerous distinct small yellow spots. 



Size. An adult female from Bangkok measured : — 



Length of dorsal leather-shield 208 mm. 



Breadth „ „ 230 „ 



Length of head and neck 205 „ 



Hah. Burma, Siam, Cambodia, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, 

 Borneo. 



23. Pblochelys cantoeis Gray. 



Gymnopus indicus, Cantor, p. 10. 



Chitra inclica, Giinth. Eept. Brit. Ind. p. 50, pi. vi. fig. C. 



Pelochelys cantoris, Blgr. Cat. Chel. etc. p. 253 (skull fig.). 



Cantor's Soft Turtle was described from a Peuang specimen. 

 Cantor writes of this species : — '•^ Hah. Pinang, Malayan Peninsula 

 (estuaries, sea-coast), rivers in India, Philippine Islands. At 

 Pinang this species is frequently taken in the fishing-stakes. The 

 Chinese inhabitants greatly relish this, as well as the preceding 

 species of Gymnopus (i. e. Trionyx), as articles of food. Individuals 

 weighing 2-iO lbs. occur in the Ganges, and others of gigantic 

 dimensions are not uncommon at Pinang. It is very powerful, 

 and of ferocious habits." 



I obtained a specimen from the Kedah river ; tlie dry and 

 somewhat shrivelled dorsal shield measured 641 mm. in length 

 and 552 in breadth. But Cantor measured a much larger indi- 

 vidual, whose "shell" was 940 mm. in length. This Kedah 

 specimen is apparently the first record of this species in Siamese 

 territory, and it probably also occurs in Siam proper, as a half- 

 gro\ATi specimen in the Siamese Museum, caught in the river 

 Menam, appears to belong to this species, and also a little Soft 

 Turtle, caught on the 29th March, 1897, in the Bangpakong 

 river, a little below Kabin, may be ; Mr. Boulenger writes of this 

 individual : — " I doubt the Tnonyx being Pelochelys cantoris, but 

 the affinities of so young a specimen cannot be well understood." 



