CHELONIA. 725 



eye and tlie angle of the mouth and the tympanum, the latter being covered with 

 smooth skin. The skin of the neck is granular, and there are a few whitish papillae 

 on the mental region and about the orifices of the chin glands. The scales on the 

 lower half of the leg are arranged the same as in Indian examples, but they are 

 narrower and more transverse and not quite so numerous. Those along the inner 

 margin of the limb are also considerably longer than in the Indian form, the scales 

 not gradually but suddenly decreasing as they reach that border. The upper surface 

 of the foot of the female is also more covered by smaller scales than in specimens 

 from the Madras Coast. The toes are short and broad and nearly fully webbed, and 

 they are covered above with four large transverse scales. A row of seven large scales 

 along the outer margin of the limb and a transverse row of four very large scales on 

 the posterior aspect about the carpal joint with an imperfect smaller row above it, as 

 in the Madras form. Occasionally, a series of enlarged scales on the knee. Five 

 large scales along the inner border of the tibia. Upper surface of hind leg granidar, 

 with smaller and more numerous granules than in the Indian form. A series of 

 enlarged scales over the 5th toe and four enlarged scales over each of the other 

 toes. A few enlarged scales on the inner margin of the heel, and the sole covered 

 with moderately sized flat scales. A small plate at the base of each claw on the fore 

 and hind feet. Claws 5, 4, moderately long and curved. Tail of male longer than 

 that of female, covered below, behind the vent, with a double row of small scales. 

 The rest of the skin above and below granular, the granules above generally capped 

 by minute black horny spines, the others usually terminating in white papillae. 



The colour of the adult shell is deep black, darker than in the Madras form, with 

 a yellowish-horny narrow interrupted line along the margin of the sternum, but in 

 the young the shell has a brownish tinge on the dorsal ridges and along the 

 outer margins of the costals, with a rather better-defined yellow margin to the 

 sternum, and with a few dull yellowish patches on the under surface of the pre- 

 axiUary and post-inguinal marginals. 



The head of the male above is nearly uniform brown, darkest on the upper 

 surface over the nose, and is destitute of any markings. The horny plates of the 

 jaws in the male are leaden-grey, with a vertical black streak between the notch 

 and the nostrils, which are in a black area ; the margm of the jaw is blackish, and 

 there is an obscure pale elongated spot on the side of the mandible, below the 

 anterior angle of the eye. In some females, the upper surface of the head is 

 reticulated with olive-brown and orange- yellow. The tip of the nose is deep 

 blackish-brown, and behind this, to the commencement of the parieto-occipital 

 crest the middle is occupied with much finer and more obscure reticulations than 

 those above the eye and on the temporal region. The maxiHary and mandibular 

 plates are reticulated with pale greenish-horny and orange-yellow, and the former 

 has the dark vertical premaxiUary streak of the male, and the dark lower margins. 

 An orange spot on the mandible below the angle of the mouth, leading interruptedly 

 to the tympanum. The skin of the neck is grey ; the fine granular scales of the 

 upper surface black, those of the under surface being the same colour as the skin. 



