REMARKABLE TORTOISE, TESTUDO LOVERIDGII. 495 



actually in contact with the anterioi' margin of the fifth verte- 

 bral. This condition is not marked in the young, but is accen- 

 tuated by each growth-ring. The fourth pair, in the male type, 

 as already remarked, are broadly in contact mesially, in front of 

 the last vertebral ; in no other instance does this occur although 

 they are sometimes in close proximity. The abnormal form of 

 these shields on the male type is shown in text-fig. 4. 



The second costal is usually about equal in width to the third 

 vertebral. 



The marginals are also extremely characteristic and very greatly 

 reduced in depth. The first pair are normal in outline but a little 

 longer than deep ; the second and third are about one and a half 

 times as long as deep ; fourth to eighth greatly reduced, once and 

 a half to twice as long as deep, as against about two-thirds long 

 as deep in T. ibera ; ninth and (or) tenth deepest, a little deeper 

 than long ; tenth and eleventh similar but slightly smaller. In 

 the young the marginals are more or less uniform, as deep as 

 broad or a little deeper ; the sutures dividing them are somewhat 

 oblique, making them rhombic in shape (vide text-fig. 5 a). 



Text-figure 7. 



f 



Intergular shield (iiat. size). 



The supracaudal is paired in all the specimens examined with 

 the exception of a female living in the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens, and three young specimens, in which it is single. 



The epidermal shields of the plastron are not peculiar in any 

 way (vide text-fig. 6). 



Gulars modei-ate, truncate and rounded anteriorly, forming 

 together a bow-shaped edge, projecting beyond the carapace and 

 forming a support for the animal's chin ; lateral edges shorter 

 than the mediaii suture ; gulo-humeral sutures directed obliquely 

 backwards and inwards, meeting each other at an angle of 

 60° to 140°. 



An intergular is present in three out of twenty-three speci- 

 mens. In the smallest specimen it is small but distinct (vide 

 text-fig. 5 b); in one female it is somewhat smaller than a gular 

 (vide text-fig. 7), and in a male it is well developed and as large 

 as a gular. In all three it is protuberant and kite-shaped, the 

 short sides in front. 



