770 . REPTILIA. 



division into an anterior and posterior wall, each of which were covered with fine folds 

 placed ohliquely across each wall, but parallel to each other. 



The allantoic bladder is small compared with that of B. lineata^ and pre- 

 sents two halves that are thrown into numerous fine folds, on their red inner 

 aspects. 



The lung is very different from either the lung of B. basJca or B. lineata, 

 and is chiefly distinguished by the large flask-shaped lower lobe which depends over 

 the oviduct and abuts against the cloacal bladder, distending the inguinal region 

 at every deep inspiration, pushing before it the cloacal bladders and the enormous 

 masses of yellow consistent fat that occur in that region. It nearly equals the 

 length of the body of the lung, which is narrow and rather elongate, partially 

 divided at its anterior extremity, with a sinuous external margin, terminated below 

 by a small flask-like lobe. The anterior portion of the lung is nearly twice as broad 

 as the lower end, before the flask-like lobes are given off. The lateral length of the 

 lung is 11*50 inches; its greatest breadth anteriorly 3-75 inches, and posterior 2"-16. 

 The length of the large flask-like lobe is 4*50 inches. 



JELardella thurgi is a thoroughly aquatic species, frequenting deep slow-flowing 

 nullahs, and the long land-locked reaches of deep water that occur, for example, in 

 the district of Purneah, old channels of the Cossy river, which has travelled 

 about ten miles to the westward, during a comparatively short space of years. 

 These slow-flowing and stagnant waters are generally well stocked with aquatic 

 weeds of various kinds but little known, and generally teem with fish, and are 

 thus the favourite resort of crocodiles. The S. thurgi lives in these muddy bottoms 

 where it scrapes up the bulbous roots of the aquatic plants, occasionally rising to the 

 surface to breathe, but not so frequently as the Fangshures and Trionyces, by 

 reason of its capacious lung. The stomachs and intestines I have opened have 

 invariably been filled with dark-green vegetable matter, but with no trace of an 

 animal diet. This water tortoise is eaten by Crocodilus palustris, and I have been 

 informed by a reliable authority that he has seen a crocodile trying to swallow a 

 large -ET. thurgi, and that he has found the stomach of C. palustris, packed full 

 of fragments of the shells of tortoises. 



It is not at all of a fierce disposition, and when unmolested seldom attempts 

 to bite, and even when much irritated it only slowly opens its mouth, and with- 

 drawing its head, emits a blowing hissing sound. 



Although thoroughly aquatic, I have kept it during the hot weather out 

 of water, and without food, for more than two months, and with no evil effects as far 

 as I could judge ; after it is returned to the water, having been previously for 

 long deprived of it, the allantoic bladder becomes rapidly distended, as in other and 

 allied species, with a clear watery fluid, which, when the animal is frightened, is 

 ejected with considerable force. 



This species appears to be widely distributed through the Gangetic system 

 of rivers, extending up the Brahmaputra, but not occurring in Arracan and 

 Burma. 



