710 REPTILIA. 



longitudinal vomerine ridges. Tlie premaxillaries have considerable backward ex- 

 pansion to meet the vomer, and are perforated by two round foramina. The 

 anterior extremity of the maxillary furrow is occasionally perforated by a promi- 

 nent round foramen. The palatine foramen is longitudinally oval, large, and some- 

 times two or four small foramina occur near it. The base of the skull has 

 considerable lateral expansion, and is flat. The symphysis of the lower jaw is erect, 

 not deep, and culminates in a feeble hook. The posterior two-thirds of the alveolar 

 edge is rather deeply grooved. The coronoid is neither prominent nor high. 



The vertebral bodies in T. elongata are placed close to the neural plates, but 

 in T. platynota at a considerable distance from them, and the bodies in T. elongata 

 are broad, but in T. platynota much laterally compressed. However far removed, 

 or however near to the neural plates the bodies of the vertebrae may be, they ulti- 

 mately become connected, throughout their length, with the neural plates by the 

 growth of a delicate osseous partition which originates at the extremities of the 

 bodies and grows from the neural plates and from the neural arch of the bodies as 

 well ; the line of suture, however, between the neural plates being preserved in 

 this partition. 



The number of vertebrae which by means of transverse processes and ribs sup- 

 port the pelvis, would seem to be variable. In this species, I have observed as 

 many as five distinct vertebrae brought into connection with the ilium, the first two 

 having the distal ends of their processes abutting against the eighth costal plate on 

 a broad surface applied to the ilium, with the rib of the next vertebra broad and 

 large, and the succeeding rib more feeble, and the next still more so, the penulti- 

 mate being anchylosed to the body of its vertebra ; whilst in T. platynota I have 

 observed only three sacral ribs. Generally only two or three sacral ribs are applied 

 to the ilia in the other genera, such as Batagur, Emys, Cyclemys, Slg} 



In this species, transverse processes occur on the third vertebra after the last 

 sacral, and are strongly developed, far within the limits of the pelvis, but this is 

 a very different condition of things to what prevails in T. platynota, in which 

 all the caudal vertebrae are provided with lateral autogenous processes, which are 

 quite distinct from the centres of the vertebrae, in a female in which all the costal 

 plates have grown up to the marginals. The terminal caudal vertebra which in 

 the male bear the claw-like scale, occasionally become firmly united with one another. 



The difference in the length of the tail of the sexes is due to the much larger 

 and longer vertebrae of the male, which is the case also in the fresh- water tortoises, 

 and indeed in Chelonia generally. 



The stomach has the general character of the group. The small intestine 

 is 21-50 inches in length in a male, the carapace of which is 11"- 7, and the large 

 intestine in the same individual is 12 inches. There is a sacculated-like portion 

 or rudimentary caecum on the sides of the large intestine at its beginning. 



'In an adult Chelonia virgata I observe that complete amalgamation of the sacral ribs with the vertebrse takes 

 place, although some anatomists have stated that anchylosis never occui's. The series of skeletons of Chelonia in the 

 Indian Museum would seem to make it probable that anchylosis in the adult state is not unfrequent. 



