752 EEPTILIA. 



figured by Dr. Gray as the skull of B. dhongoha^ and afterwards referred with 

 doubt by the same observer to this species.^ The figure of the body of this species 

 given by Dr. Gray was taken from a young specimen obtained in Nepal, and 

 I have before me three specimens which I procured alive from the Calcutta turtle- 

 brokers, the other being the large adult in the Indian Museum with no history 

 attached to it, but probably procured by Mr. Blyth in Calcutta. These four speci- 

 mens agree in their general form and the shape of their shields with Dr. Gray's 

 figure of this species. 



The skull is at once distinguished from the skull of B. baska by its having only 

 one ridge on the palate, and by its more truncated snout which is not upturned to the 

 same extent as in ^. hasha, nor so compressed as in that species. The upper surface 

 of the snout is nearly flat, with only a very faint upturning at its extremity. The 

 external nares are broader, as is the snout generally, than in B. hasJca, and the inter- 

 orbital area is also quite flat and broad, as is also the inter-zygomatic. As already said, 

 the palatal surface is marked, on each side, by only one distinct and prominent oblique 

 serrated ridge internal to the alveolar border of the maxilla, although there are indi- 

 cations internal to each of the strong second ridge that occurs in B. baska in that 

 position ; and in the adult the longitudinal ridge which separates the last mentioned 

 ridges in B. baska is broad and rounded, while in the younger specimens it is much 

 as in that species. From the anterior extremity of this ridge, a furrow runs forwards, 

 as in ^, baska, to the premaxillary pit. There are only two lateral palatal furrows 

 and not three, as in B. baska. The posterior nares are more expanded from behind 

 forwards in^. baska, than in the present species, in which the lateral borders are 

 nearly parallel. The pterygoid contraction of the base of the skull is also much 

 narrower in B. lineata than in B. baska. The lower jaw has the same structure as 

 B. baska, only the hinder furrow which is so strongly marked in that species, is very 

 shallow and hardly merits the name of a furrow, being more a concavity. The 

 serration of the alveolar margins is stronger than in B. baska. There does not 

 appear to be any character yielded by these skulls, as there is none in the internal 

 structure of the animals that would entitle us to separate them wholly generically. 



This is a considerably larger species than B. duvaucelli, and the absence of any 

 black lines in either sex suffices to distinguish it at once. It is, however, more diffi- 

 cult to point out wherein the skulls differ, because my experience is that the skulls 

 of the allied species of Batagur do not differ much from one another, but the chief 

 feature in external configuration which serves to separate the two is the relative 

 greater breadth and shortness of the skull of B. lineata as compared with B. duvaucelli. 

 Certain characters, however, can generally be detected, and, as a rule, the most 

 reliable one is to be found in the palatal region. Like B. duvaucelli, B. lineata has 

 only one palatal ridge, but in the latter there is always present a longitudinal 

 eminence or ridge in the mesial Kne behind and between the lateral ridges ; and pro- 

 ceeding from either side of this longitudinal ridge, there is in B. lineata the 



^ Cat. Sh. Rept., Brit. Mus., tab. xxxvi, fig. 1. 

 2 Suppl. Cat. Sh. Eept., p. 58. 



