TESTUDO. 109 



long in the curve, and became inferior at their lower fourth, but have no salient 

 angle. Anteriorly and posteriorly to the union of the carapace and plastron, the 

 marginal plates are oblique. The line of suture of the two former is undulant, as 

 is also the corresponding line of conjunction of the scutes; the two intersecting 

 each other several times. These lines are less irregular in their course than in 

 Testudo Oioeni, and on the two sides are nearly parallel. The axillary and inguinal 

 notches present directly downward. 



Plates of the Carapace.— (P\. XXII. 1.) The carapace has eleven vertebral 

 plates. The first of the series is quadrilateral, with convex sides, and is two and 

 a quarter inches long and one and a half broad. The second is octohedral, with 

 alternating long and concave and short and straight sides ; or it is quadrilateral, 

 with concave sides and the angles truncated. It is one and a half inch long and 

 one inch and seven lines broad, and articulates with the anterior three pairs of 

 costal plates. The third vertebral plate is quadrilateral, with convex sides, and it 

 is one and a half inch long and one inch ten lines broad, and articulates with the 

 third pair of costal plates. 



A similar arrangement to that described of the second and third vertebral plates 

 exists also in the Gopher {Testudo jjolyphemus) . 



The fourth to the eighth vertebral plate inclusive are hexahedral, of which the 

 fifth is the largest, while the others decrease in succession from the fourth to the 

 last of the number. 



The ninth vertebral plate is an accessory to the usual number, is quadrate, with 

 convex sides, and articulates with the eighth pair of costal plates. 



The penultimate V-shaped plate incloses one-half of that succeeding, which is 

 one and a half inch long and two and a quarter inches broad. 



The first costal plate is five and a quarter inches long by three inches broad, and 

 articulates with three-fourths of the first marginal plate, all of the second, and 

 three-fourths of the third. 



The nuchal plate comes in contact with the position of the first costal scute at 

 the anterior angle, in which position it is five and a quarter inches broad, and equal 

 to the first vertebral scute. 



Plates of the Plastron. — (PL XXII. 2.) The entosternal plate is pyriform, and 

 is three inches five lines long and two lines broader. Its neck extends three-fourths 

 of an inch upon the position of the gular scutes, and its base is about a third of an 

 inch removed from the humeral scutes. 



The hyosternal plates are over five inches in length, and articulate with the third 

 to the angle inclusive of the sixth marginal plates. 



The hyposternal plates are four inches long at their middle, and articulate with 

 the sixth and seventh marginal plates. 



The xiphisternal plates include a notch behind, and in the median line of the 

 sternum are three inches long. 



Scutes of the Carapace. — (PI. XXII. 1.) The second and third vertebral scutes 



are three inches long; the former three and a half, the latter four inches broad. 



The sides are bow-shaped, and nearly parallel. The anterior margin of the second 



is deeply concave; that of the third bow-shaped. The fourth vertebral scute is 



15 



