REMARKABLE TORTOISE, TESTUBO LOVERIDGII. 523 



found the three — in a cleft of a split boulder ; they had to climb 

 the boulder and slide down an almost vertical cleft, where one 

 would suppose they could not get out ; the cleft was about 

 18 inches. In this cleft, amongst a litter of dead leaves, were two 

 not half-grown individuals. We hunted about all the rest of 

 the day, but found no more. . . . Their markings are very 

 fine ; Tabora specimens are noticeably darker than the Dodoma 

 ones. 



" Pairing. 



"On December 12th, 1921, at 4.30 p.bi., I observed two 

 specimens paired for the first time. A native said they had been 

 so approximately for half-an-hour. The shell of the male formed 

 an angle of 45*^ with that of the female ; his fore-feet were in the 

 air ; he kept moving his head in and out of his shell and had his 

 mouth wide open. In April this female and others were heavy 

 with eggs. On January 13th two more tortoises were paired at 

 9 or 10 A.M. and from that date and onwards pairing took place 

 daily, usually between 9 or 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The female 

 generally walked away with the male following ; frequently the 

 latter became impatient and snapped at her limbs, or crawled on 

 her back, making vicious snaps at her head whenever it appeared. 

 On a couple of occasions the males were so ill-tempered that they 

 seized the edges of the females' shells in their jaws and dragged 

 them along, finally getting beneath them and apparently 

 endeavouring to overturn them. 



"Habits of T. loveridgii compared with those of Cinixys belliana. 



" As I had these species under observation for four months 

 confined in the same enclosure, I found it very interesting to 

 compare the habits of an exceptionally highly-specialised Box 

 Tortoise with those of a retrogressive and soft-shelled species. 



" Owing to neither my native collector nor myself finding 

 T. loveridgii in the open, I had come to the conclusion that 

 it was nocturnal ; with a view definitely to ascertain if this were 

 indeed so, I visited the enclosure at all hours of the night up to 

 1 a.m., but with one or two solitary exceptions never found them 

 out. At dusk they always retired beneath the heaps of stones and 

 boulders provided for them, and there they piled themselves up, 

 one atop of another, a great deal of noise being caused by the 

 scratching of claws on shells. They did not again make an 

 appearance until several hours after daybreak, which varied 

 according to the dullness or brightness of the morning. 



" G. belliana, on the other hand, not infrequently stayed out at 

 night, and particularly when rainy ; all seven of them would spend 

 the night in trying to escape from the enclosure. Moreover, 

 0. belliana was always on the move at daybreak. On further 

 reflection it was obvious that in their soft shells T. loveridgii 

 would fall an easy prey to the carnivores roaming about after 

 nightfall, and which are very plentiful in the Dodoma district 



