28 EMYSGUTTATA. 



with longitudinal wrinkles; and this does not seem to depend on the age of the 

 individual, as I have seen it both in the young and in the adult animal. Besides 

 this, the form of the shell and distribution of the spots vary very much in different 

 specimens. Leconte gives the following varieties: 



a " Shell depressed, very little convex, wider behind; marginal plates above the 

 hind legs very spreading; head with a few yellow spots, neck with many, particu- 

 larly on the under side. 



/3 "Shell more convex, spots on the shell large; marginal plates beneath some- 

 times reddish, those over the hind legs not spreading; sternum black, a little red 

 on the middle and edges; sometimes the jaws, fore part of the throat, and a hne 

 running from the lower jaw along the side of the neck, orange. 



y " Shell convex like the last, not emarginate behind, fewer spots, rarely any on 

 the lateral plates; plates of the disk with concentric striae; marginal plates over 

 the hind legs not spreading; sternum very dark brown, varied with yellow. 



S "Shell convex like the last; plates marked with concentric striaj, generally 

 with but one orange spot on each; head with four yellow spots on the top; another 

 at the corner of each eye, and a large one on the side of the hind part of the head, 

 extending and growing narrower to the neck." 



It is now certain that Seba* first gave a figure, and a tolerably good one too, 

 of this animal, but unaccompanied by any description; he only says it came from 

 Amboyna; but Seba is notoriously incorrect in the geography of his animals. 



Schneider, (Jean Gottlob,) the celebrated Greek scholar of Frankfort on the Oder, 

 appears to have been the first to describe this animal, under the name Testudo 

 anonyma, in his Natilrgeschicte der Schildkroten, a work I have never been able 



*Thes.,S. I. tab. 80, fig. 7. 



