112 EMYS HIEROGLYPHICA. 



extensive; the thoracic arc quadrilateral, and narrow in the antero-posterior 

 direction; the abdominal are hexagonal and broad; the femoral and sub-caudal 

 plates are irregularly quadrilateral and large. Of the supplemental plates, the 

 axillary is elongated and quadrilateral, the inguinal is triangular. 



The head is remarkably small and narrow; the snout a little pointed; the 

 nostrils are in front, and near together; the eyes are large, and placed near the 

 snout; the pupil dark, the iris golden. The upper jaw is slightly emarginate in 

 front; the lower furnished with a small tooth. 



The anterior extremities are long, with a row of large square folds of skin 

 along the superior border of the fore-ami, beginning at the humerus; the anterior 

 surface of the fore-arm is covered with large scales, the posterior surface with 

 smaller; the carpus is broad; the fingers five in number, and pabnated, furnished 

 with five nails; the three intermediate are straight, and of very great length; the 

 posterior extremities are long and very flat; the tarsus and metatarsus greatly 

 expanded; the toes are remarkably palmated, and furnished with four long nails. 



Colour. The shell is olive-brown, tinged with green, and is subdivided 

 by broad yellowish lines into spaces of various shapes and sizes, each space 

 being occupied by narrower concentric lines of the same colour. The marginal 

 plates have each a broad yellowish band extending through the middle in a 

 vertical direction; at each extremity of the plates are yellowish spots, and one 

 or more semicircular lines of the same colour; these meeting with the lines 

 of the adjoining plates form a complete circle, in which are enclosed two yellowish 

 spots. The colour of the sternum is a dirty yellow, with a dusky blotch at the 

 external border of the thoracic and abdominal plates. 



The head is dark brown; a yellow line begins at the snout, runs between the 

 eyes, increasing in breadth, and terminates behind the orbit; another line of the 

 same colour begins behind the orbit, small at first, but increasing in size till it 

 forms a large yellow blotch, out of which issues another line, which runs along 



