CLASS REPTILIA. 



Section I. Cataphracta. 

 Body covered with two shields. The vent longitudinal or 

 circular : the ossa quadrata, and the pterygoid processes 

 forming part of the skull ; the organs of generation simple 

 and single in both sexes. 



Order I. Testudinata, or Tortoises. 



Ribs, vertebrae and sternum united together in a bony case, 

 enclosing the body , and protecting the head and limbs ; the 

 jaws toothless. 



The case is usually covered with horny shields, which are 

 granular in the newly -hatched animal, and which increase in 

 size by the addition of layers on the under side of the edge, 

 and having the first formed granular part marked on their 

 surface ; this part is called the areola. The shields of the 

 upper shell are called, from their position, discal, consisting of 

 the vertebrae or central series, and costal, composed of the two 

 lateral series and marginal plates, which have often an ad- 

 ditional small narrow plate placed on the back of the neck, 

 called the nuchal plate. 



The under shell is usually covered with six pair of shields, 

 one called the gular (which have sometimes an additional 

 intergular plate between them), the second the humeral, the 

 third the pectoral, the fourth the abdominal, the fifth the 

 femoral, and the sixth the anal plates ; the suture between 

 the upper and lower shell is generally covered by the end of 

 the pectoral and abdominal plates, and there is a small 

 plate placed at each end of it, the front called the axillary, 

 and the hinder the inguinal plate. 



Genus I. Testudo. 



Feet club-shaped, claws five before, four behind blunt ; jaws 

 homy. Shells hemispherical, solid, covered with horny 

 plates ; the hinder marginal plate broad, incurved. 

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