484 MISS JOAN B. PROCTER ON THE 



me to use the whole of his valuable collection for dissection and 

 general study. Also to Sir John Bland-Sutton, for his gift of 

 X-ray plates of the types and young, and facility to study the 

 tortoises themselves beneath the fluorescent screen at Middlesex 

 Hospital at a time when no specimens could be spared for dissec- 

 tion ; and also to Mr. R. H. Burne, of the Royal College of Surgeons, 

 for investigating the structure of the denticulated jaw, and the 

 ribs, and for making slides of them. 



The purport of the present work is to furnish a detailed 

 description of this extraordinary Soft Tortoise, based upon the 

 large series of specimens which have passed through my hands ; 

 especially of the peculiarly interesting structure of the bony cara- 

 pace and its development, compared with cases of fenestration in 

 Testudo and other groups. The recently discovered young is also 

 described in comparison with the adult, and various notes on the 

 habits of living specimens by Mr. Loveridge are appended. 



General Account. 

 Material and history. 



In 1920, when Mr. G. A. Boulenger first examined this tortoise, 

 then new to science, there were no specimens available for the 

 making of a skeleton. The carapace, which feels soft and springy, 

 was examined by cutting a flap in the abdominal shields, removing 

 the viscera, and holding the animal against the light. When 

 this is done, no bony matter of any kind can be detected ; the 

 carapace is seemingly translucent without ribs or costal plates : 

 it was therefore described as boneless. The view obtained in this 

 way is deceptive, as it is limited to the I'egion of the second and 

 third costal and vertebral shields on account of the restrictions 

 of the fenestra in the plastron through which it is viewed ; the 

 shadows of the reduced costal plates, which are there, are entirely 

 obscured by the black markings in the epidermal shields. 



The young specimen described in his note*, although agreeing 

 in almost every particular with the type, excepting its convexity, 

 was an anomalous specimen, not the young of loveridgii. In 1921, 

 Mr. Loveridge sent a Kaffir on an expedition to hunt for further 

 material, and the true young was found in the type-locality 

 This hfis a depressed cai-apace, but does not resemble the adult in 

 general appearance. Since then further expeditions have suc- 

 ceeded in capturing more specimens, both adult, young, and half- 

 ffrown, so that at one time and another I have been able to 

 examine twenty-three spirit specimens, besides two specimens 

 at present living in the Zoological Gardens. It has also been 

 possible to prepare skeletons both of adult and young, and to 

 make dissections. 



jlfter examining this new material, Mr. Boulenger agrees 



* Boulenger, C.E. Acad. Sci., Paris, t. 170, p. 264 (1920). 



